Editor-in-chief - SHBUshbu.ac.ir/efl/file-efl1/EFL1.pdf · (Hamayan, 1995, p. 213). In contrast to traditional testing, through alternative assessment, students are evaluated on what

I

Editor-in-chief

Mohammad Hassan Tahririan

Assistant editor

Katayoon Afzali

Editorial board

Afghari, Akbar (Sheikhbahaee University)

Atai, Mahmood Reza (Kharazmi University, Tehran)

Baker, Mona (University of Manchester)

Hillel, Margot (Australian Catholic University)

House, Julian (University of Hamburg)

Sajjadi, Samad (Shahid Beheshti University)

Sedighi, Firooz (Shiraz University)

Talebinezhad, Mohammad Reza (Sheikhbahaee University)

II

Aims and Scope

Sheikhbahaee Journal of Language Studies, a peer-reviewed one,

publishes research articles in wide range of topics in the areas of

language teaching, translation and literary studies, including,

discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, ESP,

material development, teaching literature, children’s literature and

stylistic analysis.

The journal is particularly keen to help make connections between

fields, theories, research methods, and scholarly discourses and

welcomes contributions which critically reflect on current practices

in the areas mentioned above. Contributors are invited to submit

their innovative manuscripts electronically to: [email protected].

III

Contents

The Effect of Portfolio Assessment on the Development of

Metadiscourse Awareness in EFL Learners' Writing in the

Academic Context

Amirian, Z. & Tavakoli, M.

1-22

Objective Assessment of Oral Presentations and EFL Learners’

Speaking Development

Mazdayasna, G.

23-38

The Effect of L2 Learning on Learners' Perception of

Culture

Zarei,G. & Pourghasemian, H.

39-48

The Effect of EFL Learners' Gender and Second

Language Proficiency on Willingness to

Communicate Afghari, A. & Sadeghi, E.

49-66

The Effect of Self-directed Training on ESP Learners’

Self-directed Learning Readiness

Mohammadi, M. & Mohammadi, P

67-82

Literary Criticism and Appreciation

The Chaotic World and the Entropic Crisis in Thomas

Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49

Rezaei, H. & Azari Samani, M.

83-98

1 Sheikhbahaee EFL Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1, January 2012

The Effect of Portfolio Assessment on the Development of

Metadiscourse Awareness in EFL Learners' Writing in the

Academic Context

Mansoor Tavakoli Zahra Amirian

University of Isfahan University of Isfahan

[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract

This paper aimed at probing the implementation of portfolio assessment

in the writing classroom in an attempt to examine its effect(s) on EFL

learners‟ metadiscourse awareness. It addressed the following questions:

Does portfolio assessment as a teaching technique have positive wash

back effect on the participants‟ achievement in their writing ability in an

academic context? And to what extent do the students develop

metadiscourse awareness in their writing by the treatment of portfolio

assessment?

The participants were the students of English literature enrolled for

their composition course. After being homogenized for their proficiency

level, they were randomly divided into an experimental group (EG) and a

control group (CG). As the treatment, portfolio assessment was employed

as the teaching technique for the experimental group. Data was then

subjected to different statistical procedures. The results of data analysis

revealed that the participants in the EG outperformed those in the CG

with regard to the achievement in their overall writing ability. Second,

based on chi-square results, participants in the EG used metadiscourse

markers more correctly and efficiently compared with those in the CG.

The results of the present study may have some implications for teaching

of writing to EFL learners.

Keywords: Achievement, Metadiscourse knowledge, Portfolio

assessment, Performance testing, Writing ability

mailto:[email protected]

The Effect of Portfolio Assessment on the development … 2

Introduction

In order to assess the effect of teaching on students‟ learning a second

language, different test methods such as paper and pencil tests and performance

tests have so far been used. Teachers usually apply such tests to examine the

outcome or (product) of learning. But how do they assess the process of

learning simultaneously when the students are learning something? This

fundamental question led most researchers to call for a new paradigm in

language teaching and assessment whereby the learner would be able to learn

and assess the process of learning (Teasdale & Leung, 2000; Lynch, 2001;

Leung & Lewkowicz, 2006). So, the need for a paradigm shift from

„positivism‟ to „constructivism‟ attracted the attention of researchers in the field

(e.g., Lynch, 2005; Leung & Lewkowicz, 2006).

This movement was accelerated as we entered the „constructivist post-

method era‟ in which assessment is regarded as part of learning since in the

process of assessing, the learner tries to learn something (Clapham, 2000;

Hancock, 1994; Omalley & Valdez Pierce, 1996). Influenced by this shift of

paradigm from testing the outcome to assessing the learning process, language

assessors proposed a number of alternatives to testing such as self-assessment

and portfolio assessment (Genesee and Upshur, 1996; Hamp-Lyons 1996).

According to Harris (1997), self-assessment is a key learning strategy for

autonomous language learning, enabling students to monitor their progress and

relate learning to individual needs. One of the fundamental elements of self-

directed language learning is the opportunity for learners to assess their own

progress and thus help them to focus their own learning; therefore, self-

assessment is rightly seen as one of the pillars of learner autonomy. Henner-

Stanchina and Holec (1985, p. 98) state that through self-assessment, "learners

simultaneously create and undergo the evaluation procedure, judging their

achievement in relation to themselves against their own personal criteria, in

accordance with their own objectives and learning expectations".

Another advantage of self-assessment is providing the learners with

opportunities for reflective learning and ongoing formative assessment. Self-

assessment can help learners to realize that they have the ultimate responsibility

for their own learning. It helps learners to think about what they need to do in

order to get better marks. In other words, "By encouraging such individual

reflection, self-assessment can begin to make students see their learning in

personal terms" (Harris, 1997, p. 3). As Chamot and O'Malley point out (1994,

p. 119), "self-rating requires the student to exercise a variety of learning

strategies and higher order thinking skills that not only provide feedback to the

student but also provide direction for future learning".


In fact, because of the potential impact that alternative assessment has on

classroom instruction in assessing the process of learning, there is much for it to

flourish in the field of language assessment.

Among such alternatives to testing, portfolio assessment was singled out in

this study because it might have potential effect on instruction. So, this paper

aimed to explore the effect of portfolio assessment on the students‟ writing

ability, especially on their knowledge and use of metadiscourse markers.

Review of the literature

Assessing the academic achievement of every student is a necessary part of

class activities, especially writing that presents a challenge for teachers and

learners throughout the classroom period. This study focuses on one type of

alternative assessment system, portfolio assessment.

The theoretical foundation that underpins this study is the notion of

„constructivism‟ which refers to more recent views on teaching and learning

proposing that all individuals learn by constructing information about the world

and by using active and dynamic mental processes (Omalley & Valdez Pierce,

1996). This idea led to several alternatives to testing (Omalley & Valdez Pierce,

1996; Brown, 2004; Leung & Lewkowicz, 2006). Following this line of

investigation, many researchers have come to recognize that alternative

assessment is an important means of gaining a dynamic picture of students'

academic and linguistic development. "Alternative assessment refers to

procedures and techniques used within the context of instruction which can be

easily incorporated into the daily activities of the school or classroom"

(Hamayan, 1995, p. 213). In contrast to traditional testing, through alternative

assessment, students are evaluated on what they integrate and produce rather

than on what they are able to reproduce and recall (Hamp-Lyons, 1996).

Meanwhile, Portfolios have been associated with alternative assessment

not only in general education but more particularly in second language

education as well (Darling-Hammond, 1994; Hamayan, 1995; Shohamy, 2001).

The literature reveals a degree of controversy and confusion concerning the use

of portfolio assessment as an alternative to traditional testing. It is argued that

portfolio assessment is more than merely one of many homogeneous

alternatives in assessment (Brown & Hudson, 1998). As further argued by

Lynch and Shaw (2005, p. 264), “…. the portfolio, as an exemplar of

alternative assessment, represents a different paradigm or culture that requires

an approach to validity evidence (i.e., to establishing the trustworthiness of the


inferences made from the assessment process) differing in certain critical

aspects from the approach used in traditional testing.”

Portfolio assessment as one of the alternatives to testing is defined as the

systematic collection of student work measured against predetermined scoring

criteria. These benchmarks may include scoring guides, rubrics, check lists, or

rating scales (O'Malley & Valdez Pierce, 1996). Portfolio assessment is a

systematic collection of a variety of teacher observations and student

products, collected over time, that reflect a student's developmental status

and progress (cited in Shabban, 2001, p. 30 ). In fact, the popular format of

authentic assessment, according to Chapman (1990), is portfolio assessment, in

which students complete a body of writing over a prolonged period of time. The

goal of portfolio assessment is to integrate writing into the teaching of all

subject areas.

Genesee and Upshur (1996) provide a plausible reason for the application of

portfolio assessment: “A portfolio is purposeful collection of students' work

that demonstrates to the students and others their efforts, progress, and

achievements in given areas” (p. 99). They maintained that the primary value

of portfolios is in the assessment of student achievement because they

provide a continuous record of students' language development that can

be shared with others.

Moreover, many researchers (e.g., Genesee and Upshur, 1996; Upshur and

Turner 1998; Kormos 1999; Papajohn 1999; Lynch, 2001; Khoshsima, 2006 to

just mention a few) investigated the effect of portfolio assessment on learning

process in classroom context. Their findings depicted plausible impact on the

assessment of students‟ classroom performance either in writing or speaking.

For instance, Elahinia (2004) investigated the effect of portfolio assessment on

Iranian EFL learners‟ writing achievement. She found that portfolio assessment

had a significant effect on writing performance of the participants. Moreover,

she found that there was a correlation between portfolio assessment scores and

scores on the final exam writing test. Also, the participants of the study had a

positive attitude toward their writing experience (i.e. portfolio assessment).

Marefat (2004) investigated the nature of students' comments, their

reactions to teacher's comments and their views on portfolio use in an email

based EFL writing class. She found that most of the students limited themselves

to comment on their spelling and grammar errors and few of them commented

on organization and content. Meanwhile, the majority of the participants found

portfolio approach a positive and refreshing opportunity. Also some students

developed a personal understanding of their learning process.


In the same way, in order to investigate the wash back effect of alternative

techniques on Iranian students‟ writing ability and reading comprehension,

Khoshsima (2006) conducted an experimental study. His findings indicated that

using oral and written portfolios affected the participants‟ writing ability and

reading comprehension.

Similarly, Paesani (2006) found that students perceived the value of the

writing portfolio project. In their critical commentaries, the students noted that

the portfolio project was valuable to the development of their skills in writing

as well as their grammatical competence. As Paesani (2006) noted, the themes

that emerged from the commentaries reflect some of the main objectives of the

course: “a process-oriented approach to writing, the simultaneous learning of

skills and content, and the contextualized study of grammar” (p. 626).

In an interesting study, Lam and Lee (2009), while taking a formative

function of portfolio to writing assessment, specifically investigated how the

formative potential of portfolio assessment can be better applied in the EFL

writing classroom. Their findings indicate that although students responded

positively to the formative aspects of portfolio assessment, they still preferred

summative grading and tended to believe that grades were the best way to

inform their current standards of writing.

Following this line of investigations, the current study has taken both the

formative and summative functions of portfolio assessment in the classroom so

as to clearly portray the writing ability of the students through their real

performances during the course and at the end of the instruction. This research

specifically focuses on participants' use of "meta-discourse markers".

Metadiscourse is “discourse about discourse” (Vande Kopple, 1985) and refers

to the author‟s linguistic manifestation in a text to “bracket the discourse

organization and the expressive implications of what is being said” (Schiffrin,

1980, p. 231). Textual metadiscourse refers to terms such as text connectives,

code glosses, illocution markers, etc. Interpersonal meta-discourse is pertaining

to ideas, including validity and modality markers, attitude markers, and

commentaries (Vande Kopple, 1985). Pronouns such as I, me, us, we, you,

conjunctions such as indeed, of course, perhaps, unfortunately, seems, and

phrases such as I felt that, it seems to me, I believe, according to my point of

view are some examples of metadiscourse markers. Some "discourse markers"

are used to indicate relations between segments of discourse (“and,” “because,”

“on the other hand”), interpersonal relations (“sorry, but,” “you know,” “as a

friend”), and cognitive attitudes toward what is being said (“I mean,” “in a

sense,” “certainly”). „Linguistic action verbs‟ are used to describe the social


actions performed in discourse (“she asked,” “don‟t threaten me”), and, in

some cases, simultaneously to carry out those actions in „performative

utterances‟ (“I promise,” “I tell you”). „Reported speech‟ (direct or indirect

quotation) purports to represent for some present purpose something that was

said previously (Lucy 1993, pp. 18-21).

Various studies have examined the role that discourse markers play in

helping readers and writers achieve the communicative function of the texts.

For instance, Dafouz-Milne (2008) sought to explore the role that

metadiscourse markers play in the construction and attainment of persuasion.

Her findings suggested that both textual and interpersonal metadiscourse

markers are present in English and Spanish newspaper columns, but that there

are variations as to the distribution and composition of such markers,

specifically in the case of certain textual categories (i.e. logical markers and

code glosses).

Simin and Tavangar (2009) attempted to look at foreign language learners‟

written products from a pragmatic perspective, focusing on the use of

metadiscourse markers. Based on the results, they inferred that the more

proficient learners are in a second language, the more they use metadiscourse

markers. Also, it appeared that explicit instruction has a positive effect on the

correct use of metadiscourse markers.

Following the above-mentioned studies, the present research tries to

investigate the effect of portfolio assessment on using textual and interpersonal

markers in terms of their frequencies and appropriacy of occurrence in the

participants‟ compositions. By frequency, it means the number of

metadiscourse markers correctly used by the participants in either experimental

group or comparison group. Appropriacy of metadiscourse means that whether

the participants who received portfolio assessment could develop a plausible

understanding of that knowledge or awareness in writing their composition.

Purpose and Research Questions

The purpose of this study was to investigate the implementation of portfolio

assessment in an academic context in an attempt to examine its effect on the

students‟ writing ability, especially their metadiscourse awareness.

Taking the above purposes into consideration, the present study addressed

the following research questions:

1) Does portfolio assessment as a teaching technique have positive wash

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VCW-4R6C62K-2&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1033786259&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=f360bf03256757395f680414b7c9652a#vt1


back effect on the participants‟ achievement in their writing ability in an

academic context?

2) To what extent do EFL students develop metadiscourse knowledge

(awareness) in their writing by the treatment of portfolio assessment?

The tentative statements that can be formulated in the form of null hypotheses

about the outcome of the study are that portfolio assessment does not have any

significant effect on the participants' overall writing ability nor does it have any

impact on improving their metadiscourse knowledge.

Methodology

In order to provide plausible answers to the aforementioned questions, a

quasi-experimental study was conducted which will be described and

delineated below.

Participants

The population from which the participants were selected included sophomore

students of English literature from the University of Isfahan, Faculty of foreign

languages who had enrolled for the writing courses. The participants were 86

and were distributed into two classes based on their registration for the term. By

applying different elicitation procedures, their writing performances were

closely observed during the term. These procedures are described and

discussed below.

Instrumentation

At the outset of the term, an Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was administered in

order to neutralize the potential effect that the participants‟ proficiency might

have on the outcome of the study. Then, the descriptive statistics of the scores

obtained on OPT were computed (See Table 1). The mean and standard

deviation were 69.25 and 2.80, respectively. Those participants who scored

above 60% were considered as qualified for the experiment, and the data

obtained by those below the standard were excluded from the final analysis.

After applying this criterion, 60 participants remained for the study who were

randomly distributed between the two classes. So, one class was randomly

assigned to the experimental group (EG), receiving the treatment (using

portfolio assessment as a teaching technique) and the other group (CG) was

exposed to the traditional method of teaching and testing writing.


Table 1

OPT Scores

Test Mean SD Variance N

OPT 69.25 2.80 19.49 60

The experiment

As mentioned in the previous section, 60 students of the English writing course

were randomly distributed in two classes of 30. For the control group, the

instructor dealt with teaching writing using the traditional techniques such as

explicitly talking about paragraph development, the role of connectives in

developing ideas and attitudes, use of topic sentences, use of major and minor

supporting sentences, and so on. However, for the experimental group, the

teacher asked the students to build up portfolios for themselves as a technique

for both teaching and assessing their writing progress. These portfolios

contained all samples of their works including both classroom assignments and

homework as well as self-assessment records. Self-assessment records were the

students' self-ratings of their own works based on the criteria defined by the

teacher at the beginning of the treatment (See Table 2. below). In each session,

students were asked to write about an argumentative topic which is one of the

portfolio assessment techniques. Then, the teacher observed their classroom

assignments and gave them some guidelines to review their compositions. The

students received some assignments and tasks including various topics

concerning the population growth, life in dormitory, choice of marriage

partners, use of the Internet, importance of academic life, and many other

argumentative subjects and were asked to write about them in about 150-200

words for the next session they came to the class. After that, some criteria were

given to students to help them judge their own tasks (self-rating criteria, See

Table 2). In each session, the instructor spent almost half of the class time to

check the students‟ written works and provided them with useful feedback

about their development in using metadiscourse markers. He was concerned

with how well they would be able to convey their ideas, thoughts and attitudes

by applying their interpersonal knowledge, and what types of organization they

developed in their compositions by using textual markers such as connectives.

In the next session, the instructor collected the students‟ assignments in order to


observe how much they progressed in terms of their overall writing ability as

well as their metadiscourse knowledge in comparison with previous versions.

During the course in the experimental group, each student had ample

opportunities receiving feedback from the instructor and being checked four or

five times.

Based on the information provided by the participants about their own

strengths and weaknesses, a profile analysis as to the classification of their

problems was done. That is, the instructor categorized the participants

according to the problems they had in writing: those who had problems

with main idea and theme; those who had problems with organization ; those

who had trouble with conventions; and finally those who had difficulty

with metadiscourse awareness.

Then, the instructor scored the students‟ writing portfolios using a rating

system with the analytic criteria borrowed from Chapman (1990). These criteria

were used with some modifications as shown in Table 2. below.

Table 2

Rating System

Scores/Criteria Descriptions

5/Focus Is the main idea, theme, or point of view clear and consistently

maintained?

5/Support/Elaboration Are arguments and conclusions adequately supported and

explained?

5/Organization Is the logical flow of ideas clear and connected?

5/Conventions Are standard English conventions (spelling, grammar,

punctuation) properly followed?

5/Complexity How many words, phrases and sentences are embedded in the

composition?


In addition to discrete scoring, the assessment of students‟ portfolios also

included a focused, holistic score integration, which reflected how well the

students as a whole accomplished the assignment. The instructor used holistic

marks such as highly-being developed, well-being developed, fairly-being

developed, and not-being developed in order to account for the writing ability

of the participants in qualitative terms. Of course, the instructor considered the

student‟s entire portfolios not just single assignments. This rating system

emphasizes stages of development, and writing ability is described qualitatively

from highly being developed to not being developed. The participants‟ written

portfolios were closely observed by the instructor later in the course to examine

whether participants were able to develop metadiscourse knowledge in their

writing ability.

For data collection procedure, two samples of writing were taken from the

participants in both EG and CG. The first one was taken exactly at the second

week of the term, and the second one obtained at the end of the experiment. The

first sample is normally called pre-test, and the second one, post-test. For the

first administration, the first two argumentative topics (mentioned below) were

given to the students in both classrooms, and they were asked to write their

ideas about one of them in about 150 to 200 words in the classroom.

The second two topics (mentioned below) were given to the participants

in the second administration. The topics given to the participants were

attempted to be more communicative so as to elicit authentic information

concerning the use of metadiscourse elements. Again, the participants were

asked to write their ideas about one of the two topics in about 150 to 200 words

in the classroom.

The selected topics are as follows:

It is high time men ceased to regard women as second-class citizens.

What do you think?

World governments should conduct serious campaigns against smoking.

How?

Parents are too permissive with their children nowadays. What do

children think?

Examinations exert a destructive influence on education. Can you

suggest a better way?


Scoring

Based on the analytic benchmarks suggested by Chapman (1990) with some

modifications, the two samples of writing composition were scored. The criteria

considered in scoring were the presence or absence of clear thesis statements

and topic sentences, paragraphing, overall organization, complexity of

sentences, and the style of argumentative reasoning, as well as such mechanics

of writing as grammar, spelling, and punctuation. The two raters (researchers)

used interval scaling for scoring the compositions; they assigned 5 to each

criterion such as focus, support/elaboration, organization, conventions, and

complexity if fully observed in the participants' compositions. They also

considered the quantity and quality of the participants‟ use of textual and

interpersonal metadiscourse in terms of organization of the text and transfer of

their ideas and attitudes. T-units were also used to determine the complexity of

the compositions in terms of embedded phrases and clauses. In order to avoid

the subjectivity of scoring, the two raters followed the same rating system

(mentioned in Table 2. above). As shown in Table 3 below, the inter-rater

reliability obtained from the first and second samples are 0.82 and 0.89,

respectively. The obtained data were submitted to a series of statistical

analyses, which will be described and discussed in the following part.

Table 3

Inter-rater Reliability

Raters Mean SD R

1st Sample 37.5 6.48 00.82

2nd

Sample 43 5.83 00.89

Results

As mentioned above, this study aimed at examining the effect of portfolio

assessment on the participants‟ achievement in writing in academic context,

especially focusing on metadiscourse knowledge (awareness). It should be

noted that, portfolio assessment here was used as a technique for teaching

writing to EFL students and it was not considered in its broader sense as a


separate system of assessment.

In order to investigate the null hypotheses (mentioned above), a series of

statistical procedures such as t-test and chi-square were run. The descriptive

statistics were computed in order to provide the average mean scores for both

experimental and control groups. The obtained data are described and

summarized in table 4 below.

Table 4

Descriptive Statistics: Pre-test and Post-test Concerning CG and EG

Groups Mean SD

CG Pre-test 19.5 4.32

CG Post-test 20.10 3.40

EG Pre-test 19.7 4.54

EG Post-test 22.53 3.56

The descriptive statistics in Table 4. indicates that there is a difference

between the mean scores of the pre-test and the post-test in the control and

experimental groups. The participants‟ performance on the second sample was

better than their performance on the first one. Specifically, Table 4. reveals that

the participants‟ writing abilities in the experimental group seem to have

improved after being exposed to the treatment in the classroom.

In order to investigate the first null hypothesis, an independent sample t-test

was run. The t-observed value for the comparison of the control and

experimental groups‟ mean scores on the test is 2.70. As shown in Table 5, this

amount of t-value exceeds the t-critical. It can be claimed that there is a

significant difference between the two groups mean scores on the test, so the

first null hypothesis is rejected.


Table 5

A Comparison of the Post-test Mean Scores: Control and Experimental Groups

Observed t D.F. t-Critical

2.70 58 2.01

N = 60; *p = < 0.05

The findings imply that, the experimental group with a mean of 22.53

outperformed the control group whose mean is 20.10. As a result, based on the

analyses, it can be said that the application of portfolio assessment as the

teaching procedure in writing proved to be significantly effective and helped

the participants in their overall writing ability in the experimental group.

As for the second question, which aimed at investigating the effect of

portfolio assessment on metadiscourse awareness in the participants‟ writing,

the chi-square test was applied. This statistical procedure was used in order to

examine the frequency of metadiscourse markers such as textual and

interpersonal markers used correctly and appropriately by the participants. It

should be noted again that only those textual and interpersonal markers which

were correctly and efficiently used as to contribute to the theme of the writing

were counted, and through percentage analysis they would be analyzed.

Through the analysis of a corpus of 120 essays written by the participants,

the number of metadiscourse markers, textual and interpersonal, appropriately

used by the participants was counted. The obtained data were described

according to frequencies and percentages (See Table 6. below). Then, a

comparison was made between frequencies and percentages of meta-discourse

markers in order to observe if there would be any meaningful difference

between the comparison and experimental groups in terms of proper use of

them. To do so, two sets of chi-squares were run to find the difference between

CG and EG concerning the appropriate use of metadiscourse markers.


Table6

Frequency and percentage of meta-discourse markers: Textual and

interpersonal

Groups- Meta-discourse Total frequency Percentage

CG Textual 331 46.2

CG Interpersonal 235 45.6

EG Textual 385 53.8

EG Interpersonal 280 54.4

The chi-square observed value for comparing the experimental and control

groups‟ appropriate use of the textual markers is 4.07. As Table 7 below

depicts, this amount of chi-square value exceeds the critical value of chi-square,

i.e., 3.84. It can be claimed that there is a significant difference between the

numbers of textual markers produced by the two groups. As shown in Table 6

above, the experimental group produced 53.8% of correct textual markers while

the control group produced 46.2%.

Table 7

Chi-square Textual Markers

Observed chi-square D.F. Critical chi-square

4.07 1 3.84

N = 60; *p = 0.05

The chi-square observed value for the comparison of the experimental and

control groups use of the inter-personal markers is 3.93. As observed in Table 8

below, this amount of chi-square value was greater than the critical value of

chi-square, i.e. 3.84. It can be claimed that there is a significant difference


between the number of inter-personal markers produced by the two groups in

terms of both efficiency and appropriacy. The experimental group produced

280 (54.4%) of inter-personal markers while the control group produced 235

(45.6%).

Table 8

Chi-square Interpersonal Markers

Observed chi-square D.F. Critical chi-square

3.93 1 3.84

N = 60; *p = 0.05

Discussion

Concerning the first null hypothesis, the finding confirmed significant

difference between experimental and control groups. That is, portfolio

assessment affected the participants‟ overall writing ability to a large extent in

the experimental group. By further observing the portfolio assessment, it can be

said that it not only provides improved information about students‟

achievement in writing but also makes a positive influence on teaching and

student learning. This explanation confirms the argument by Hancock (1994)

and Omalley & Valdez Pierce (1996) that alternative assessment has a useful

backwash effect on teaching and learning. The results can also be explicated in

the sense raised by Genesee and Upshur (1996). That is, using portfolio

assessment in second language classroom can have a very specific focus, such

as writing, or broad focus that includes examples of all aspects of language

development.

Furthermore, step by step observation of the written portfolios of the

students in the experimental group indicates that the holistic ratings they

received after the instructor‟s assessment were highly correlated to their scores

obtained on the last writing sample given to them as post-test. This finding

implies that participants in the experimental group had a significant

achievement in their writing ability through using portfolio assessment.

As shown in Tables 7. and 8. above, the results obtained through running the

chi-square tests for comparing the frequency of correctly using metadiscourse


markers in the participants‟ compositions revealed that the students in EG

employed both textual and interpersonal markers more properly than those in

CG. Similarly, the participants in experimental group produced 53.8% textual

markers and 54.4% interpersonal markers correctly in their essays, which are

greater than those used in control group, i.e., 46.2% and 45.6%, respectively.

Based on this analysis, it can be concluded that the implementation of portfolio

assessment in class affected the participants‟ writing abilities in experimental

group to the extent that they could use metadiscourse markers (textual and

interpersonal) more frequently and efficiently than those in the control group.

This will be more clarified below when the qualitative analysis of

metadiscourse knowledge observed in some randomly selected compositions

are discussed.

Moreover, through qualitative analysis of the participants‟ compositions

obtained at the end of the experiment, a number of interesting points

concerning the use of metadiscourse markers both textual and interpersonal can

be raised. It was found that good compositions, which favored higher scores,

included more metadiscourse markers. The higher frequency of using

appropriate metadiscourse markers led to higher ratings of these compositions.

Conversely, lower use of these markers in lower-scored compositions

indicates that paying less attention to how the audience will perceive the text

would lead to poor rating of these texts by the raters.

Of course, there were some other low-scored compositions in the control

group in which a lot of metadiscourse markers were used. This overuse made

the compositions unnecessarily wordy and difficult to follow. On the other

hand, there were some higher-scored compositions in the experimental group

with fewer metadiscourse markers. This point would imply that making a

balance between the content of the composition and the use of metadiscourse

markers is essential. These findings have been supported by other researchers

(e.g., Crismore, 1984; Vande Kopple, 1985; Hyland, 1998).

Conclusion

Based on findings of this study and the related discussion, it can be concluded

that:

1) The use of portfolio assessment in the classroom in an EFL context affected

participants‟ achievements in their overall writing ability and hence led them to

create types of discourse appropriate to academic settings.


2) The metadiscourse awareness of the participants in the experimental group

proved to be significantly enhanced compared with the comparison group.

3) The use of alternative assessments (portfolio assessment in case of this

study) demonstrated a more useful backwash effect on instruction than the

traditional methods such as paper-and-pencil tests.

Two immediate implications are implied by the findings obtained in this

study. First, the application of alternative assessment procedures such as

portfolio assessment in classroom can be highly beneficial; this is when

assessment is integrated with instruction. Second, portfolio assessment is really

an authentic assessment and is a productive and useful tool for assessing the

students‟ progress in class performance since the characteristics of the

classroom tasks in portfolio assessment correspond to the characteristics of

tasks in the target language use (TLU) situation.

In fact, findings of this study would propose an integrative model of

assessment for classroom application with performance testing such as writing

and speaking or other types of tests. The findings obtained would also support

the application of such instruments in our writing and speaking courses in

academic context. This can be a significant starting point toward the integration

of instruction and assessment.

In the long run, the challenges (whether to assess the students'

performance in writing based on alternative assessments on the one hand or to

measure their ability of writing using such traditional measures on the other)

that language teachers and testers faced would seem to be endless until a

compromise is reached. That is, in order to come to sound and unbiased

decisions regarding the learners‟ classroom language behaviors, language

testers and assessors should move toward a multi-level system of evaluation

that can provide multiple sources of information. This has been, indeed, the

concern of most researchers at the turn of the century (e.g., Teasdale & Leung,

2000; Shohamy, 2001; Lynch, 2005; Leung & Lewkowicz, 2006; Lam & Lee,

2009). In other words, educators would require both quantitative information

and qualitative description about language ability in order to better understand

the meaning of scores obtained by students.

Like many other studies, this one also had some limitations. The first

limitation is concerned with the design of the study, i.e., quasi-experimental

design, the results of which cannot be generalized. Perhaps a study with a more

scientific design may come to more significant results than what were obtained


here. The second limitation is to do with the nature of portfolio assessment used

here. As mentioned before, a portfolio is a collection of a student's work,

experiences, exhibitions, self-ratings, commentaries, etc. accumulated over

time. However, since in this study, portfolio assessment was used as a

technique for teaching writing to EFL students, such integral features as self-

rating or commentary were neglected. More comprehensive studies can be

conducted which take consideration of these significant features of portfolio

assessment. The third limitation concerns with the low sample size which is

also a threat to the generalizability of the findings. Finally, although alternative

assessments such as portfolios can provide teachers and assessors with useful

and authentic results, they are time-consuming to be employed for large scale

administrations.

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Studies, 16, 279-296.

Elahinia, H. (2004). Assessment of writing through portfolios and achievement

tests. Unpublished M.A thesis, Teacher Training University, Iran.


Dafouz-Milne, E. (2008). The pragmatic role of textual and interpersonal

Metadiscourse markers in the construction and attainment of persuasion: A

cross-linguistic study of newspaper discourse Journal of Pragmatics. 40, 1,

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Darling-Hammond, L. (1994). Performance-based assessment and educational

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language education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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(eds.) Performance testing, cognition and assessment. (151-162).

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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study: What and why?, The Ohio State University Retrieved from

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settings. ELT, 51, 1. 1-8.

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Techniques on Students’ Reading Comprehension and Writing Ability.

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..


Objective Assessment of Oral Presentations and

EFL Learners’ Speaking Development

Golnar Mazdayasna Yazd University

[email protected]

Abstract

A longitudinal study was planned, and a scale was suggested for assessing

EFL learners’ oral presentations. The scale had three major evaluation

components: `Preparation’, Òrganization’, and `Presentation’. The students

were informed about the rating scale against which their performances would

be evaluated. Throughout the course each student had five performances on

different occasions.

The results of the study indicated that: (a) significant improvement was

observed in the learners’ performances, (b) ANOVA results indicated that the

five performances were significantly different, (c) there were high

correlations between each paired performances, and (d) the rating scale was a

reliable and consistent measure by means of which the instructor could assess

the student’s speaking ability.

Key words: Oral presentation, speaking skill, EFL learners, objective

assessment, rating scale.

Introduction

Most students studying English as a foreign language share a common problem

with organizing and communicating their thoughts and ideas orally. This may

be due to the fact that learners do not benefit from sufficient practice and

opportunities to speak in the classroom. Second, learning to speak is a complex

process not readily known to the learners; learners are not familiar with the

skills and strategies they can use to develop their speaking ability. Third, EFL

learners have little opportunity to develop the skills for arranging their ideas

cohesively and coherently while speaking. Fourth, they are not familiar with

the criteria by which their oral performances are assessed.

Objective Assessment of Oral Presentation and EFL Learners’ …

24

Iranian students majoring in Ènglish Literature’ or `Teaching English as a

Foreign Language’ have to pass certain courses related to speaking. Among

these courses is Òral Reproduction of Short Stories’. The rationale behind this

course is two-fold: (1) to make students familiar with the literary elements used

in short stories as regards characters, and plot. It is assumed that through

reading stories students can experience an enjoyable task, and come across

universal themes, and foreign culture and values; (2) to reproduce the stories in

the classroom in their own words in order to improve their speaking skills so

that they become competent enough to speak appropriately and effectively. As

far as course objectives are concerned the teacher is responsible to create

conditions so that the students will have a chance to be exposed to the language

in real situations.

Like other language skills, speaking is an interactive process of constructing

meaning that involves producing, receiving and processing information (Burns

& Joyce, 1997; Kayi, 2006; Richards & Renandya, 2002). In order to speak

successfully the learners should not only know how to produce grammatically

correct sentences (linguistic competence), but also to use the language properly

(sociolinguistic competence). Furthermore, speech has its own skills,

structures, and conventions that are different from the written language (Carter

& McCarthy, 1995; Cohen, 1996; Burns & Joyce, 1997). The learners should

therefore be provided with opportunities where they can learn and experience

the language through communicative tasks (Stone, 1991; Lavine, 1992; Rathet,

1994; Quinn, 1994).

With respect to assessing the speaking ability of learners studying English

as a foreign or second language, there is a general agreement that evaluating

students’ oral ability is not only a difficult task, but also time consuming.

Henning (1987) states that the greatest draw-back with scales for testing oral

ability is that they tend to have rather low reliability because of subjective

measures. Therefore, teachers should be recommended to use rating scales

which provide them with a clear and precise definition concerning each scale

point so that most measurement errors would be minimized. Kitao and Kitao

(1996) assert that evaluating speaking ability is a difficult task that requires

simultaneous use of different abilities. The components of speaking that might

be considered in the assessment scale are grammar, pronunciation, fluency,

content, organization and vocabulary. Even though methods of testing speaking

are not perfect, they have significant effects on teaching and classroom

instruction. Spolsky (1992) maintains that diagnostic or formative assessment

is typically curriculum-oriented which provides feedback to students and

teachers.


To date, few research studies have been conducted with the purpose of

proposing ways and methods to assess students’ speaking abilities. Nambiar

and Goon (1993) found out that effectiveness in oral communication is not

dependent on words and sounds alone but that paralinguistic and extra-

linguistic data also play a significant role. Upshur and Turner (1995) suggest a

method for designing simple, reliable and valid rating scales for second

language tests that can be easily created by any group of teachers.

Messerklinger (1997) suggests that teachers can evaluate speaking ability by

asking students to speak. Also, MacGregor (2000) asserts that in the classroom,

evaluation can be seen as an ongoing process in which the teacher utilizes

various instruments to measure the progress of the students. Therefore the main

objective of conducting the present study in a course called Òral Reproduction

of Short Stories’ was to discover a method by which EFL students’ speaking

ability could be measured objectively, while helping them to learn. The

hypotheses pertaining to this study were as follows:

1. The learners' preparation of a story has a role in their oral performances.

2. The learners’ role in organizing the elements of a story has a role in their oral

performances.

3. The learners’ presentation of a story as regards communication, clarity,

grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation, has a role in their oral performances.

The research questions addressed in this study were as follows:

1. Does the learners’ preparation of a story have a role in their oral

performances?

2. Does the learners’ role in organizing the elements of a story have a role in

their oral performances?

3. Does the learners’ presentation of a story as regards communication, clarity,

grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation have a role in their oral performances?

Methodology

The study was based on a longitudinal observational design. The subjects were

fifty-nine undergraduate students who had enrolled in the two sections of the

course called Òral Reproduction of Short Stories (I)’ at Yazd University. In

the following section the procedure used in the classroom will be elaborated


26

Procedure

At the beginning of the semester the students were made familiar with the

methodology and the rating scale by which their oral presentations would be

assessed throughout the course. Handouts containing all the necessary

instruction for home preparation were distributed to all the students on the very

first day. In this way the students were not only informed about the aim of the

course, but also how they were supposed to read and prepare each story at

home for class presentation. The handouts contained the following instruction:

a) At each session the teacher would assign one story from the prescribed book

entitled `Short Stories for Oral Reproduction’.

b) The students would read the story paying close attention to the structure of

the story, that is, the beginning (introducing characters), the body (building of a

conflict or a sequence of actions leading to a crisis or problem), and the climax

(resolution of conflict or how the problem is solved). In addition, they would

visualize the main events of the story and consult their dictionaries for

unfamiliar idiomatic expressions, and words.

c) The students would summarize the main events of the story or write an

outline concerning the main events of the story at home. The students were

advised not to memorize the story word by word; instead they were

recommended to keep in mind the introduction, plot, and conclusion of the

story and reproduce it in their own words. Finally, they were to rehearse the

story at home, in order to present the story in the classroom with less difficulty.

d) With respect to their class performances the students were instructed to bear

in mind the following points:

1. Each student would begin his/her oral presentation by giving an

Ìntroduction’. In the introduction part the students would talk about (i) the

major and minor characters of the story, (ii) the central idea of the story, and

(iii) the setting of the story.

2. Then, they would talk about the `Development’ of the story. At this stage

they would talk about the events that occurred in the story step by step without

providing the details of events.

3. Finally, they would have a `Conclusion’ at the end of their presentation. In

this part the student would express their opinion about the story in a few

sentences.


e) Besides the regular class session which was held two hours every week for

each section, a fixed timetable of four hours each week was set so that if the

students had problems regarding their stories, they could consult the teacher.

Class Assessment

During the course, each student was evaluated for five performances. The

teacher would randomly call students to come in front of the class and

reproduce their stories. Each session the teacher would assess the oral

performances of ten students. There was a separate rating sheet for each student

(Appendix I). At the top of the rating sheet there were spaces for such

information as name, date, title, and time. The scale had three general

components: Preparation, Organization, and Presentation. Organization had

three sub-components: Ìntroduction’, `Development’ and `Conclusion’.

Presentation had five sub-components: `Communication’, `Clarity’,

`Grammar’, `Vocabulary’ and `Pronunciation’. The arrangement of each

criterion helped the teacher to observe and rate the students’ oral performances

systematically. The Likert type scale provided for a numerical rating from 0 to

5; where 5 indicated excellent, 4 very good, 3 good, 2 fair, 1 poor, and 0

indicated the absence of the criterion. In addition, for each criterion there was a

space for “observations” for writing down information that helped the teacher

during the final numerical scoring. At the bottom of the scale there was a space

for general comments. This space was used for recording specific information

regarding mispronounced words and common grammatical errors, so that the

teacher could discuss them with the student at the end of the class.

As mentioned earlier, there were fifty-nine students in the two sections.

They were made familiar with the rating scale so that they would know the

criteria by which they were evaluated. Furthermore, since the class period

throughout the whole semester for assessing the students’ oral presentations

was insufficient, extra classes were also held with this purpose in mind.

Data Analysis

At the end of the semester, after the data collection was over, all the students’

rating sheets were calculated and analyzed using the SPSS package. Then the

students’ performances on five different occasions were compared to see how

the evaluation model had worked. Statistical measures were taken in order to

examine the linear development and improvement of students’ oral

performances throughout the course. The statistical operations performed on

the data were as follows:


28

(a) The first computation was to find out whether the five performances

were of the same nature. The statistical operation utilized was

ANOVA. The results as presented in Table 1 indicate that the five

performances were significantly different. The students’ fifth

performances were not greatly different from their fourth

performances. This indicates that the learners had developed some

consistency of performance and had overcome some basic problems in

their oral presentations.


Table 1

Summary statistics of ANOVAs performed on the results of the 5 performances

Df Mean

Square F Sig.

2nd

performance Between Groups

Within Groups

Total

21

37

58

22.774

9.542

2.387

.010

5th performance Between Groups

Within Groups

Total

21

37

58

9.370

5.374

1.743 .068

3rd

performance Between Groups

Within Groups

Total

21

37

58

20.411

8.328

2.451 .008

4th performance Between Groups

Within Groups

Total

21

37

58

17.278

9.027

1.914

.041

(b) T-tests and Paired Samples Correlations were also computed with the

intention of comparing each two performances. The results revealed high

correlations between each paired performances like first and second, second

and third, third and fourth, as well as fourth and fifth performances (Table 2).


30

Table 2

Correlation coefficients computed for each paired performances

N Correlation Sig.

Pair1: 1st & 2

nd performances

Pair2: 2nd

& 3rd

performances

Pair3: 3rd

& 4th

performances

Pair4: 4th

& 5th

performances

Pair5: 1st & 5

th performances

59

59

59

59

59

.642

.720

.776

.760

.465

.000

.000

.000

.000

.000

(b) In order to measure the students’ improvement throughout the course,

t-tests were also computed, the results of which indicated that each

performance was different from the other performance in the pair

(Table 3). Correlation coefficients between each two performances

were also computed, using Pearson Product Moment correlation. The

five correlation coefficients for the five pairs revealed high correlation

between each two performances (p=.000).


Table 3

Comparison of each two performances from the first performance to the fifth

performance

95% Confidence Interval

of the Difference

t

df

Sig.

(2-tailed) Lower Upper

1st &

2nd

performances

2nd &

3rd

performances

3rd &

4th

performances

4th &

5th

performances

-3.3599

-4.6372

-2.4699

-2.3663

-1.6909

-3.2001

-1.2419

-1.1930

-6.058

-10.917

-6.051

-6.072

58

58

58

58

.000

.000

.000

.000

(c) Correlations were computed for randomly paired performances. All the

coefficients indicated statistically significant correlation between and among all

performances of the subjects. The results are presented in Table 4 which is

indicative of the fact that there has been consistency of the impact of the

treatment on the subjects.


32

Table 4

Pearson Product Moment Correlation for randomly paired performances

2nd & 5th performances

Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

1.000

59

.530**

.000

59

3rd & 4th performances

Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

1.000

59

.776**

.000

59

3rd & 5th performances Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

1.000

59

.665**

.000

59

5th & 4th performances

Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

1.000

59

.760**

.000

59

4th & 2nd performances

Pearson Correlation

Sig. (2-tailed)

N

1.000

59

.615**

.000

59


Results and Discussions

As mentioned earlier, the main aim of conducting this study was two-fold: (1)

to introduce and examine a rating scale for assessing learners’ oral

performances; and (2) to examine the effectiveness of the rating scale on the

linear development and improvement of learners’ oral performances. The rating

scale proved to be a reliable and consistent measure by means of which the

teacher could assess the learners’ oral presentations.

The findings of this study revealed that EFL learners’ preparation of a story

along with organizing the elements of a story had a positive role in their oral

performances. At the very beginning of the semester, students were made

familiar with the rating scale, that is, the criteria by which their oral

presentations would be assessed. After the first performance, the students were

informed about what made their performances acceptable or effective. Then, in

the course of the semester, they were given different opportunities to observe

their peer’s performances. Each performance indicated some degree of

qualitative improvement over the previous one.

The findings of this study shows that if the assessment of oral presentations

is done according to some established criteria and/or rating scale the learners

will adjust themselves accordingly and there will be a tangible development in

their performances. Likewise, the guidance and instruction which was provided

to the students from time to time as regards the way they should read, prepare,

and practice reproducing the main events of the story, keeping in mind the

Ìntroduction’, `Development’ and `Conclusion’ of the story proved fruitful.

Objective evaluation of oral performances enabled the students to become

aware of their pitfalls and needs. In addition, the students’ oral presentations

can be improved if they are made aware of the problems they may have in their

performances.

Correspondingly, the learner’s presentation of a story as regards

communication, clarity, grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation had a positive

role in their oral performances. All the students reproduced their stories first by

talking about the introduction of the story, then, the development of the main

events leading to the climax of the story, and finally, the conclusion of the

story. The students reproduced the story in their own words using indirect

speech. In addition, they organized their speech by using cohesive devices such

as, pronouns, co-ordinate conjunctions, and discourse markers.


34

While the students were reproducing their stories in the class, the teacher

used to jot down the errors, the students had committed on the rating sheet for

each individual student. At the end of each class session, there was a discussion

of the errors that the students had committed while reproducing their stories.

The teacher wrote on the blackboard the errors that the students had committed

without mentioning their names. First, the students were requested to correct

their peers’ errors and, then, if they were not successful, the teacher would

provide the correct answer. In this manner, the students would activate their

own grammatical competence and knowledge in order to take active part in

class discussion and not be passive recipients of knowledge. Moreover, after

the class session was over some students approached the teacher individually,

and the teacher on her behalf pointed out the errors that the particular student

had committed while giving his or her presentation. This technique proved

fruitful because the students came to realize that committing errors while

learning a foreign language is natural, and eventually, as their knowledge and

experience increases about the target language they would get rid of their

errors.

Most importantly, some students while reproducing their stories felt that

they had committed errors in their speech related to tense, vocabulary, articles,

prepositions, or word order. Without getting any hint or clue from the teacher,

the students immediately corrected their own errors and provided the correct

form. Additionally, improvement was seen in those students who at the

beginning of the semester were feeling nervous and inhibited to speak in front

of their classmates. Likewise, assessing students’ oral presentations each time

they spoke enabled them to pay attention to those components of speaking

where they did not make a good performance for the first, second, or third time.

The students had a chance to give a better presentation the following time. At

the end of the semester, an overwhelming number of students had become very

hopeful and realized that if they tried hard and practiced more they would

finally succeed. There was a consistent improvement noticed on the five

different performances that each student had.

Furthermore, some students while reproducing their stories in the class gave

some explanation regarding the story by making use of the blackboard. They

used to write the main events and draw sketches of the main characters on the

board. This technique which some students used in the class without any

instructions given by the teacher revealed that, if students are given a chance to

progress, and, if the teacher creates a humanistic environment in the class to

facilitate the task of language learning, students make use of strategies which

help them to enhance their own learning.


Conclusion

Several conclusions can be drawn from the present study. First of all the

students in this study realized that learning to speak appropriately is a complex

process and by means of practicing they can overcome many of their problems

and enhance their fluency. The students were instructed to prepare an outline of

the main events of the story, as well as practice reproducing the story at home,

so that it would be easier for them to reproduce the story naturally and

confidently in the classroom. Second, students’ oral presentations can be

assessed objectively if a reliable rating scale is utilized. Third, if the students

are informed beforehand on the basis of what criteria their performances will be

assessed they will prepare accordingly. Fourth, by having some knowledge

about their performances, the students are able to check their progress and

improvement throughout the course. Finally, the students can be convinced that

speaking like any other language skill has to be practiced and developed.

References

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National Center for English Language Teaching and Research.

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36

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Appendix I

STUDENT’S NAME: _____________________________

DATE: _________________________________________

TIME: FROM ____________ TO ___________________

TITLE: _________________________________________

0 1 2 3 4 5 OBSERVATIONS

PREPARATION (1) PREPARATION &

KNOWLEDGE

ORGANIZATION

(2) INTRODUCTION

(3) DEVELOPMENT

(4) CONCLUSION

PRESENTATION

(5) COMMUNICATION

(6) CLARITY

(7) GRAMMAR

(8) VOCABULARY

(9) PRONUNCIATION

COMMENTS:


38

39 Sheikhbahaee EFL Journal, Vol.1, No.1, January 2012

The Effect of L2 Learning on Learners' Perception of Culture

Gholamreza Zarei Hossein Pourghasemian

Isfahan university of Technology Qom university of Technology


Abstract

This study was undertaken to cast light over EFL learners' perception of

culture. To that end, a group of English language learners was taught

English through Interchange Series and their perception of culture was

assessed using a researcher constructed questionnaire. The same

questionnaire was also administered to the parents of the same learners to

detect any probable differences. The results revealed that the EFL learners

are largely distinct from their parents in perceptions of the designated

cultural issues. While EFL learners were oriented towards Western

Culture, their parents were lopsided towards domestic issues.

Keywords: Interchange series, EFL, Culture, English language, Iranian

learners

Introduction

Though considered multifarious, culture is viewed as inextricably integrated

into language. Brown (2007) is of the opinion that culture can cater for the

biological and psychological needs which are usually formulated as conceptual

networks or mental constructs of realities. In this vein, Halliday (1978) also

contends that mental constructs or semantic networks are sociologically

grounded and need to be realized externally through the medium of language.

That is, language is social semiotic used to symbolically encode and carry over

the underpinning socio-cultural values. It must be noted that Halliday (ibid)

tends to transcend this limit by suggesting that 'language neither drives culture

nor is driven by it' (p. 296). He believes that the relation is not one of cause and

effect but rather one of realization, i.e., culture and language coevolve in the

same way as do meaning and expression. Of course, this conviction seems to

hold valid in relation to the first language. Removed from its main original

cultural bed where possibly no causality can be speculated, a foreign language

seems to have some directional bearing on the new language learners'

perception of the world.


The Effect of L2 Learning on Learners’ Perception of Culture 40

Admittedly, the scene of learning a foreign language cannot be clearly set up

when it comes to the question of culture and language interplay. A good

number of scholars stress the inalienable and consolidated nature of the two on

different grounds, i.e., lexical, discoursal, ideational, textual, etc, indicating that

a foreign language to be learned cannot be dissociated from cultural elements

and that a language curriculum devoid of culture would fail in developing

communicative competence in the language learners (e.g., Genc and Bada

2005). In the same vein, some have even pushed the limits further and

postulated that learners of another language can achieve linguistic goals

provided they desire assimilation, or to a lesser degree, acculturation

(Schumann 1976). This radical stance assumes that cognitive and affective gaps

between the two languages need to be bridged by converting to the new

language cultural norms. Also, Brown (1980) attributes the failure in mastering

a second language to the learners' inability to bring the linguistic and cultural

development into synchrony.

In contrast, some other scholars refuse to approve of the need for cultural

conversion as a pre-requisite to learning another language. Stevick (1976) talks

about the fragility of students in the face of learning a culture different from

their own, which may arouse some feeling of alienation and estrangement. In

the same line of thinking, Zarei and Khalessi (2010) caution that incorporation

of foreign language culture into the instructional materials could account for

some students’ failure in learning a foreign language as they may desire to get

rid of the unsolicited cultural impositions. Also, Adasko, Britten, and Fahsi

(1990) discovered nothing motivating in using Western culture, but rather

breeding learners’ dissatisfaction with their own culture. Sometimes this

opposite force even grows more intense in regard to the English language,

portraying a totally negative picture of the language with lots of unpredictable

consequences (Chattergee 1993).

A third trend which stands half way between the two above reviewed

opposite camps does not accept either way absolutism in regard to culture and

language. Rather, it emphasizes a culture fair curriculum where cultural

awareness and intercultural competence find prominence (Alptekin 2002) and

students are supplied with strategies to cope with the cultural differences. This

position implies that foreign language pedagogy should help learners feel at

home in both international and national cultures, avoiding those patterns which

are alien, irrelevant, or sometimes adversarial. Likewise, Widdowson (1998)

suggests that instructional materials should include native-nonnative and also

nonnative-nonnative interactions as well and discourage the exclusive use of

native norms as many language learners do not use them in authentic settings.


All in all, the issue, as it seems, cannot be driven home successfully, and

there is always the danger of losing either sight of the trees for the forest or that

of the forest for the trees. This is to indicate that the golden mean may call for

the inseparability of the culture and language, though this combined entity can

be manipulated in such a manner that more or less weight is given to one of the

two components. As such, it can be claimed that textbooks are always carriers

of values with different orientations. Therefore, textbooks are expected to

impart both knowledge of language and the target culture simultaneously. In

that direction, the present study intends to compare and contrast the effects L2

books can have on young learners learning English through Interchange Series.

Drawing on Vygotsky's (1962) sociocultural constructivist theory, we may

argue that young learners of L2 are more likely to undergo a process of

constructing realities through a new channel of communication. In order to

illuminate the issue further, this study also compares young learners with their

parents to see if they go different ways when exposed to new cultural issues.

Research Purpose

As language symbolically represents a microcosm of culture and social values,

language learning textbooks necessarily embody cultural values and thus

learning the language via such books is believed to leave its culturally inclined

mark on the learners. To cast light over the issue further, this study aimed at

discovering if English language learners who were taught a special series of

books (Interchange) come to prioritize the cultural issues differently from their

parents who have not studied the books and are thus expected to be culturally

most influential in the family.

Method

Participants

The participants of the study comprised two groups. The first group involved

16 male students from the 2nd

year of junior high school to the 2nd

year of senior

high school and ranged in their age from 11 to 15. This group had started

learning English in an Isfahan based institute, Iran, through Interchange Series

about two years before and were about to finish the 3rd

volume. The second

group consisted of the same number of parents as the learners in the first group,

ranging in their age from 42 to 55. They were different in their education from

high school diplomas (6 people) to the majority of bachelors (8 of them) and

two masters. As revealed in their questionnaires, the parents knew little

English, few grammar rules, greetings, and general English conversational


statements. It must be noted that the learners were asked to require their

mothers and fathers to jointly complete the questionnaire so that the result

would represent the family's perception more coherently.

Materials

To collect the data, a researcher-constructed questionnaire was used. The

questionnaire consisted of 20 questions, in each of which a general topic (e.g.,

entertainment) was introduced, followed by 4 relevant choices (e.g., A. Dance

(Western) B. Harakate Mozun (for dance in Iran) C. Violin (Western) D.

Santour (an Iranian musical instrument), for the same general topic

'entertainment'). The topics and two of choices were supposed to represent

‘Western cultural issues’ already used in and thus extracted from Interchange

Series by Zarei and Khalessi (2010). The other two choices were Iranian

counterparts for the Western choices. The participants were required to rank the

four choices (from 1 to 4) in the order they found them most preferred to the

least one. The questionnaire was supposed to unfold the participants' cultural

priorities. Upon the construction of questionnaire, the researcher asked two

colleagues to read and improve the quality, and also piloted it with 7 sample

students to get rid of ambiguities. The order of choices, appropriacy of choices

especially the Iranian ones, and transparency of instructions were all considered

and improved.

Then the following rating scale (Table 1) was designed for the evaluation of

results. Based on the four choices used for each general topic, it was realized

that the learners would rank each item in one of the six possible orders of

preference, indicating different degrees of cultural effect. The first three orders

started with a ‘Western’ choice and received the scales of 'very strong', 'strong',

'moderate', collectively representing the so-called ‘Western Inclination’ and the

second three orders initiated with an ‘Iranian’ choice’, which were thus

assigned 'weak', 'very weak', and 'no effect', collectively representing the so-

called ‘Iranian Inclination’. The last 'no effect' scale indicates that no Western

choice was given the first or the second place in the order; in other words, the

priority was given to the two Iranian counterparts (e.g. for 'entertainment', the

choices Harakate Mozun (for dance) and Santour (an Iranian musical

instrument) both of which considered Iranian may be used first, thus showing

'no effect'). The opposite extreme rate is 'very strong' where the first two places

are given to the Western choices, indicating the strongest case of ‘Western

Inclination’.


Table1

Questionnaire rating scale

Inclination Possible Orders of Preference Rating Scale

1. Western 1. a. Western b. Western c. Iranian d. Iranian

2. a. Western b. Iranian c. Western d. Iranian

3. a. Western b. Iranian c. Iranian d. Western

1.Very

Strong

2. Strong

3. Moderate

2. Iranian 1. a. Iranian b. Western c. Western d. Iranian

2. a. Iranian b. Western c. Iranian d. Western

3. a. Iranian b. Iranian c. Western d. Western

1. Weak

2.Very

Weak

3.No Effect

Data Collection

The questionnaire was administered first to the 1st group in their institute class

and then taken home by the same learners to be filled by the 2nd

group, i.e., their

parents. The parents (mothers and fathers) were asked to do the task jointly so

that we would get a better representative family perspective. Before starting the

job, learners were briefed on how to do the task and were also trained to guide

their parents through. Parents were additionally asked for their knowledge of

the English language. All the participants were assured of the confidentiality

and anonymity of information received in order to help with the responsibility

to be fully discharged, thus increasing the response validity of the inquiry. They

were asked to rank the four choices of each item in actual order of preference (1

for the most preferred and 4 for the least preferred) depending on their own

priority for the words. The first group finished the task in almost 15 minutes

and the second group's questionnaires were returned a week later.

Results

This study sought to cast light over the culture and language relationship as it

unfolds within foreign language learning milieu. The focus was on the effects

that particular books can produce on the learners. To that end, two groups of

participants, namely, English language learners and their parents participated in

the research. Both groups were asked to prioritize their perceptions of some


cultural issues, which have been extracted from Interchange Series. The results,

as shown in the following table (Table 2), clearly confirm that these language

learners display a skewed cultural orientation as regards both groups. However,

the difference is that one group (young learners of English in Group 1) is

sharply oriented towards Western side while their parents are domestically

inclined. As can be seen, Group 1 goes for the western choices of cultural

issues (with 83.1 percent) all derived from the books they have been taught,

versus 16.9 percent of preferences given to the Iranian cultural equivalents. In

contrast, their parents show a maximum percentage of 34.37 for such Western

choices and 65.62 for domestic ones. Further details also reveal that while

young learners give maximum preference to 'Food' and minimum to 'Names' of

Western inclination their parents prefer 'Music' most and 'Names' least on the

Western list. The findings of the present study may indicate that the language

textbooks used exert a strong force in shaping the learners’ cultural perception

of the world. Of course, one needs to exercise caution in interpreting the results

as there are many other intervening factors at work within a two year long

program of learning English. Regardless of extraneous variables playing a part

in the results, we observe that the two groups stand in stark contrast with each

other. As can be seen, the frequencies and the ensuing percentages reveal that

figures are almost inversely proportional to each other (in the two general

categories of ‘Western Inclination’ vs. Iranian Inclination’).


Table 2

Frequency and percentage of the two groups' performance on questionnaire

Cultural Topics Frequency

Group 1 (N=16) Group 2 (N=16) Percentage

Group 1 (N=16) Group 2 (N=16)

W Ir. W Ir. W Ir. W Ir.

1. Entertainment 1 14 2 6 10 87.5 12.5 37.5 62.5

2. Social relations 14 2 5 11 87.5 12.5 31.25 68.75

3. Clothes 11 5 8 8 68.8 31.3 50 50

4. Place 1 11 5 7 9 68.8 31.3 43.75 56.25

5. Music 15 1 10** 6* 93.8 6.3 62.6 37.5

6. Market/Exchange 11 5 5 11 68.8 31.3 31.25 68.75

7. Food 16** 0* 4 12 100 0.0 25 75

8. Holidays 15 1 5 11 93.8 6.3 31.25 68.75

9. Names 9* 7** 2* 14** 56.3 43.8 12.5 87.5

10. Celebrities 12 4 4 12 75 25 25 75

11. Sport 15 1 7 9 93.8 6.3 43.75 56.25

12. Films 13 3 8 8 81.3 18.8 50 50

13. Animals 11 5 5 11 68.8 31.3 31.25 68.75

14. TV/Radio 15 1 3 13 93.8 6.3 18.75 81.25

15. Entertainment 2 15 1 4 12 93.8 6.3 25 75

16. Education 12 4 6 10 75 25 37.5 62.5

17. Place 2 14 2 4 12 87.5 12.5 25 75

18. Cinema 14 2 6 10 87.5 12.5 37.5 62.5

19. Miscellaneous 1 15 1 7 9 93.8 6.3 43.75 56.25

20. Miscellaneous 2 16** 0* 4 12 100 0.0 25 75

Total 266 54 110 210 83.1 16.9 34.37 65.62

Note. W= Western; Ir.= Iranian Inclinations

**=Max; *=Min

Discussions and Conclusion

The results of this study suggest that young learners of language tend to diverge

from the way their parents come to perceive the world around them and that

learning a foreign language is to a large extent a way of socially constructing

certain identities. Though it is not 'a magic carpet ride to another culture'

(Robinson-Stuart and Nocon 1996), culture learning is a process through which

language learners come to experience, perceive, interpret and feel the world

around (Brown 2007). As shown in this study, it may be claimed that culture as


inseparable part of language can penetrate into the language learners' modes of

thinking and feeling, and consequently release as behavioural outputs. Of

course, it must be noted that these remarks are not supposed to verify the strong

version of language and culture interface which stresses the interdependence of

the two for learning the language (acculturation). This point seems to require a

different research design to come up with reliable results.

Another important point to remember in regard to the results is that this

study focused on language learners within age range of 11-15, the period best

viewed as formative. The formative years constitute the learners' cognitive,

affective, and cultural filters and thus arm them with these mechanisms to

perceive and interpret the world accordingly. This is to say that young learners

are more prone to the cultural effects of the instructional materials. This finding

is in line with Vygotsky's (1962) claim that thought reflects conceptualized

actuality and in this case the learners have conceptualized the realities through

the lens of a foreign language. Compared with their parents, these young

children build up their world within what is presented to them through the

extracurricular activities of learning a foreign language, thus moving beyond

the predetermined limits of their family.

Also, the special cultural context, Iran, where our participants have been

placed triggers us not to read too much into the results. Though not approved

by every scholar, the idea of oriental culture considered as collectivist,

uncritical, obedient, etc. (Kumaravodivelu 2003) may also account for our

subjects' rather convergent behaviors. This helps us remember that the oriental

culture holds written materials in high regards with some sort of sanctity

associated. The idea can be evidenced further by referring to a Persian proverb,

which roughly reads, 'speech is air and wind', implying that say what you wish

to but avoid leaving a record, say, written record. So, books are highly valued

for the messages they deliver to the learners.

On the whole, the results reached in this study are to be taken as suggestive

rather than definitive as a multitude of issues might work for or against any

attempts made for illumination of the culture-language relationship. Also,

though young learners of English are brought up by their parents and the

parental care provided is believed to be sometimes stringent and meticulous we

need to remember that the mass media, society in general, school as an

important nurturing milieu, and the overall structure of the new generation life

style fostered by the peer pressure may all variably account for the cultural

changes the youth experience. The English language books may be considered

one crucial factor among many others. Also, the reader needs to remember that

there are lots of other factors which may have affected the results in this study,


ranging from specificity of instrument, subjects, cultural contexts, to subjects'

age, gender, number, sociocultural and family backgrounds. Therefore, the

results of the study have to be cautiously interpreted or generalized.

References

Adasko, K, D. Britten & Fahsi, B. (1990). Design decisions on the

cultural content of a course for Morocco. ELT Journal, 44(1), 3-10

Aleptkin, C. (2002). Towards intercultural communicative competence

in ELT. ELT Journal, 56(1), 57-64.

Brown, H. Douglasss (2007). Principles of Language Learning and

Teaching. NY: Pearson Education.

Brown, H. Douglasss (1980). The optimal distance model of second

language acquisition. TESOL Quarterly, 14, 157-164.

Chatterjee, P. 1993. The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and

Postcolonial Histories. NJ: Princeton University Press.

Genc, B. & Bada, E. (2005). Culture in language learning and teaching.

The Reading Matrix, 5(1), 73-84.

Halliday, M.A.K. (1978). Language and order of nature in M.A.K. Halliday (Ed.), On Language & Linguistics. London: Continuum

Kumaravadivelu, B. (2003). Problemtizing cultural stereotypes in

TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 37, 709-718.

Robinson-Stuart, G. & Nocon, H. (1996). Second culture acquisition:

Ethnography in the second and foreign language classroom. Modern

Language Journal, 87, 365-374.

Schumann, J. (1976). Second language acquisition research: Getting a

more global look at the learner. Language Learning, Special Issue, 4, 15-28.

Stevick, E. (1976). Memory, Meaning and Method. Rowley: Newbury House.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1962). Thought and Language. Cambridge:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


Widdowson, H. G. (1998). Context, community and authentic language.

TESOL Quarterly, 32/4, 705-16.

Zarei, G. R. & Khalessi, M. (2010). Cultural Hegemony in English

Language Textbooks: Interchange Series and Iranian Senior High

School English Textbooks Compared. Saarbrucken: LAP

49 Sheikhbahaee University EFL Journal, Vol.1, No.1, January 2012

The Effect of EFL Learners' Gender and Second Language

Proficiency on Willingness to Communicate

Akbar Afghari Elahe Sadeghi

Sheikhbahaee University Najafabad Islamic Azad University


Abstract

With day-increasing emphasis on communication as the chief objective of

second language learning, willingness to communicate (hereafter WTC)

has come into focus by many researchers, teachers, and foreign language

institutes. Previous studies show that WTC is highly correlated with the

two variables of perceived competence and communication apprehension.

This study aimed to investigate the difference in WTC between male and

female English major students at Khorasgan University, Iran. Firstly, 55

English major students were asked to respond to three questionnaires on

WTC, perceived competence and communication apprehension. The data

was analyzed using independent sample t-test. The results showed no

significant difference between male and female students in WTC,

perceived competence and communication apprehension. The results

related to the effect of language proficiency on WTC, perceived

competence, and communication apprehensions were also analyzed using

one way ANOVA. The results showed no significant differences between

the three different groups of students with different levels of language

proficiency in their WTC, perceived competence, and communication

apprehension

Key words: willingness to communicate, perceived competence,

communication apprehension

Introduction

Given the potential benefits of participating in communicative interaction, some

researchers argue (see for example MacIntyre et al., 1998, 2003) that a

fundamental goal of second language education should be the creation of WTC

in the language learning process; i.e., to encourage learners to be willing to seek

out communication opportunities and to use the language for authentic

communication. Research suggests that higher WTC among learners translates

The Effect of EFL Learners' Gender and Second Language …

50

into increased opportunity for practice in an L2 and authentic L2 usage

(MacIntyre , Baker, Clemente, Conrad, 2001).

Willingness to communicate (WTC) is a relatively new dimension in the

exploration of language teaching and learning, part of the wider

conceptualization of motivation proposed by Dörnyei (2003, 2005), and defined

as the probability that an individual will choose to initiate communication when

free to do so (McCroskey, 1992). MacIntyre and his colleagues suggest that a

fundamental goal of language instruction should be to foster WTC in the target

language (Baker & MacIntyre, 2000; MacIntyre, Baker, Clément, & Donovan,

2002, 2003), which may assist in language learning by acting upon what

Skehan (1989) calls willingness to ‘‘talk in order to learn’’ (p. 48).

MacIntyre (1994) found that the two variables most closely related to L1

trait-level WTC are communication apprehension and perceived competence.

Communication apprehension, defined as an individual's level of fear or

anxiety associated with either real or anticipated communication with others

and seen as having a trait-like quality (McCroskey & Richmond, 1987), is

considered to be one of the best predictors of WTC in L1 (McCroskey &

Richmond, 1987).

Kang (2005) claims security, excitement and responsibility as antecedents to

WTC. A number of other factors have been identified as directly or indirectly

predictive of WTC, including motivation (Hashimoto, 2002; MacIntyre et al.,

2001; MacIntyre & Charos, 1996), social support (MacIntyre et al., 2001),

attitude (Yashima, 2002; Yashima, Zenuk-Nishide & Shimizu, 2004), perceived

communicative competence (Hashimoto, 2002) and communication anxiety

(Baker & MacIntyre, 2000, 2003; MacIntyre et al., 1998; Yashima, 2002).

However, the relationship between WTC and these factors also depends on

context (Baker & MacIntyre, 2000, 2003; Clément et al., 2003; MacIntyre et

al., 2003).

The most important variables to affect WTC are said to be motivation, anxiety,

and gender.

Motivation

As McDonough (2007) states, motivation is what moves us to act, in this

context to learn English, to learn to teach English, or to teach it. According to

McDonough (2007) this deceptively simple statement reveals, however, the

four elements it involves:


the reasons why we want to learn

the strength of our desire to learn

the kind of person we are, and

the task, and our estimation of what it requires of us.

The conceptualization of motivation to learn the target language (TL),

originally coined by Gardner and Lambert (1972), has been adopted in

numerous studies. Generally, it refers to two types of motivation: integrative

and instrumental. Integrative motivation is described as a positive orientation

toward the TL group and a desire to interact with members of that community,

whereas instrumental motivation concerns the pragmatic gains of learning the

TL, such as academic achievement. Dörnyei (1990) claims that integrative

motivation is less relevant in a FL context because FL learners tend to have

very little contact with the TL group and may therefore feel less need to

integrate. Research findings are contradictory, failing to show clearly if any

type of motivation is superior in terms of achievements (Baker & MacIntyre,

2000; Csizér & Dörnyei, 2005; Ellis, 1997; Petrides, 2006), and there are also

reservations as to whether and how these dimensions are distinct (e.g., Dörnyei,

2005).

Furthermore, self-determination theory asserts that humans have an innate

need to feel autonomous, competent, and a sense of belongingness. The process

of self-determination is intrinsically motivating, and this motivation is satisfied

when a person is able to meet the three needs listed above. Much of the

literature on intrinsic motivation focuses on the factors that help bring forth and

sustain this tendency, assuming that once students are intrinsically motivated,

adaptive learning outcomes will follow; however, limited research has been

done on whether and how intrinsic motivation predict students’ use of various

learning strategies, and the effects of intrinsic motivation on other academic

outcomes (Dörnyei, 2000). This is surprising given that theories of learning

motivation emphasize that learning motivation is not a direct cause of academic

achievement. It rather makes it more likely that a student invests time and effort

in learning behavior which, in turn, improves the student’s knowledge.

However, not all learning activities are equally efficient and a high learning

motivation can be expected to have a substantial impact on learning gains only

if it leads a student to engage in efficient learning strategies.


52

Anxiety

The construct of anxiety plays an important affective role in second language

acquisition. In fact, anxiety is not easy to define in a simple sentence.

According to Scovel (1978) it is associated with the feelings of uneasiness,

frustration, self-doubt, apprehension, or worry. The research on anxiety

suggests that it can be experienced at various levels (Oxford, 1999).

Three components of foreign language anxiety have been identified

(Horwitz , Horwitz & Cope, 1986) in order to break down the construct into

researchable issues: (Horwitz & Horwitz, 1986)

1. communication apprehension, arising from learners' inability to

adequately express mature thoughts and ideas;

2. fear of negative social evaluation, arising from a learner's need to

make a positive social immersion on others; and

3. test anxiety, or apprehension over academic evaluation.

Regarding gender, Baker and MacIntyre (2000) found that boys prefer L2

communication outside of class, whereas girls prefer in-class communication,

and effect sizes for sex and for interactions involving sex as an independent

variable are small. Moreover, Canary and Hause's (1993) found that sex

differences in communication variables tend to be small.

Previous research findings indicating that men engage in more interruptive

behavior than women (e.g., Zimmerman & West, 1975; Case, 1988; Craig and

Pitts, 1990) may not be purely a function of gender but rather a combination of

gender, proportional representation, and perceived competence in a given

situation. Although much research has attempted to uncover gender differences

in conversational power displays, the findings have been somewhat

contradictory (Anderson & Leaper, 1998).

Targeting Iranian setting, this study aimed to investigate the language

proficiency in willingness to communicate, communication apprehension, and

perceived competence.

Regarding the aim of the study, three research questions were raised:

1) Does gender have any effect on Willingness to Communicate (WTC)?

2) Does gender have any effect on perceived competence?

3) Does gender have any effect on communication apprehension?


Related to the above mentioned research questions, three null hypotheses

have been formulated:

1) There is no difference between male and female English learners in

Willingness to Communicate (WTC) related to their first and second language.

2) There is no difference between males and females in communication

apprehension regarding their first and second language.

3) There is no difference between males and females in perceived competence

related to their first and second language.

Methodology

Participants

One hundred English major junior students of the two universities of Islamic

Azad University of Khorasgan and Isfahan University participated in this study.

Since the study focused on the gender differences in WTC, perceived

competence and communication apprehension, selecting at least 20 male and 20

female students was necessary. Method of sampling was based on accessible

and clustering design.

Instruments

• Questionnaires:

All the questionnaires used in this research study were adopted from

McCroskey (1992). They were translated into Persian and validated. Before

administering the questionnaires, the students were informed how to fill out and

for ease of scoring, they were asked to write their code number and gender, not

their names, so that their identifications remained a secret. All the

questionnaires were administered in one session and in total, they took an hour

to be responded.

1) The willingness to communicate (WTC) questionnaire consisting of

20 items on a Likert scale was administered to the students, who were

to respond the items in twenty minutes. They were asked to state how

willing they are to initiate and continue a conversation in each situation

(from 0 to 100%). In order to compare the students’ willingness to

communicate in Persian and English, the questionnaire was designed to

assess WTC in both languages. As stated in its recipe, eight items were

to be deleted (guidelines from Gardner’ website). After collecting the

data, they were analyzed and the α Cronbach reliability was computed.

This questionnaire enjoyed a reliability coefficient of .92.


54

2) The communication apprehension questionnaire. This questionnaire

consisted of 24 items concerning feelings about communicating with

others. The students were asked to indicate the degree to which each

statement applies to them by marking whether they: Strongly Disagree

= 1; Disagree = 2; are Neutral = 3; Agree = 4; and Strongly Agree = 5.

It took students about 20 minutes to respond to the questionnaire. The

questionnaire was reliable due to its high alpha Cronbach of .92.

3) The self-perceived communication competence scale was developed

to obtain information concerning how competent people feel they are in

a variety of communication contexts and with a variety of types of

receivers. This scale is intended to let the respondent define

communication competence. Since people make decisions with regard

to communication (for example, whether they will even do it), it is their

perception which is important, not that of an outside observer. It is

important that users of this measure recognize that this is NOT a

measure of actual communication competence; it is a measure of

PERCEIVED competence.

This questionnaire consisted of 12 items on the Likert scale and the

students were asked to respond to 12 different situations and say how

competent they believed they were from 0 to 100 percent (from

completely incompetent to completely competent). The items took

about 15 minutes to be answered.

In order for the researcher to compare English and Persian perceived

competence, the questionnaire was designed in both languages and the

reliability was computed. The computed alpha Cronbach reliability of

this questionnaire was .95.

Procedure

One hundred junior students studying English as their major in Islamic Azad

University, Khorasgan branch and Esfahan University, participated in this

study. As it was the first time that these questionnaires were used in Iran, the

researcher decided to investigate the probable problems that might be

encountered during data collection. Thus, the questionnaires were first run as a

pilot study in two classes at Khorasgan University. The refined questionnaires

were then administered in one session for four classes consisting of 20 male

and 80 female students. These questionnaires took participants about an hour to

be respond. As the number of female students was at least twice more than

males, the researcher had to select one female class and all the male students in

all the classes.


Data analysis

Using SPSS software, the scores on OPT were categorized so that the three

groups of low, intermediate, and highly proficient students were selected. The

data obtained from the questionnaires were scored on the basis of guidelines

available on Gardner’s website. Firstly, the alpha Cronbach for the

questionnaires was computed and then a comparison was made and the

relations between the variables were identified using t-test and ANOVA.

Results and Discussion

Gender

First, the role of gender in willingness to communicate, communication

apprehension and perceived competence was determined. Levene’s test for the

equality of variances showed no difference between the two groups of male and

female learners, thus applying independent sample t-test was considered

appropriate.

Table 3.2.1. tabulates the descriptive data for willingness to communicate.

Table 3.2.1.

Group Statistics for English Willingness to Communicate (English WTC)

GENDER N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error

Mean

English WTC

FEMALE 35 53.87 24.316 4.110

MALE 20 48.79 23.857 5.334

Table 3.2.2. shows that no significant difference was found between male and

female English learners in willingness to communicate.


56

Table 3.2.2.

Independent Samples Test for English Willingness to Communicate (English WTC)

Levene's Test for

Equality of

Variances

t-test for Equality of Means

F Sig. t df

Sig.

(2-tailed)

Mean

Difference

Std. Error

Difference

95%

Confidence Interval of the

Difference

Lower Upper

English

WTC

Equal

variances assumed

.045 .833 .752 53 .456 5.09 6.770 -8.491 18.667

Equal

variances

not assumed

.756 40.314 .454 5.09 6.734 -8.519 18.695

Table 3.2.3. represents the descriptive data for Persian willingness to

communicate for male and female English learners.

Table 3.2.3.

Group Statistics for Persian Willingness to Communicate (Persian WTC)


Mean

Persian WTC

FEMALE 35 63.79 21.985 3.716

MALE(MARD) 20 65.17 26.501 5.926

As table 3.2.4. indicates, no significant difference was found between male and

female English learners in the rate of Persian willingness to communicate.


Table 3.2.4.

Independent Samples Test for Persian Willingness to communicate (Persian WTC)

Levene's

Test for Equality of

Variances


F Sig. t df Sig. (2-tailed)

Mean

Difference

Std. Error Difference

95%

Confidence

Interval of the Difference

Lower Upper

Persian

WTC

Equal variances

assumed 1.711

.19

7 -.209 53 .835 -1.39 6.644 -14.714 11.939

Equal variances not

assumed

-.198 33.949 .844 -1.39 6.995 -15.603 12.828

Table 3.2.5. represents the descriptive data for English perceived competence

for male and female learners in detail.

Table 3.2.5.

Group Statistics for English Perceived Competence (English PC)


Mean

English PC

FEMALE 35 52.64 24.818 4.195

MALE(MARD) 20 52.91 26.082 5.832

Table 3.2.6. shows no significant difference between male and female English

learners in the rate of English perceived competence.


58

Table 3.2.6.

Independent Samples Test for English Perceived Competence (English PC)

Levene's Test for Equality of

Variances


F Sig. t df Sig.

(2-tailed)

Mean Difference

Std.

Error Difference

95%

Confidence


Lower Upper

English PC

Equal variances

assumed .024 .877

-

.039 53 .969 -.28 7.086 -14.488 13.936

Equal variances not assumed

-

.038 38.053 .970 -.28 7.184 -14.819 14.267

Table 3.2.7. briefs the descriptive data for Persian Perceived Competence for

two groups of male and female English learners.

Table 3.2.7.

Group Statistics for Persian Perceived Competence (Persian PC)


Mean

Persian PC

FEMALE 35 72.45 24.324 4.112

MALE(MARD) 20 73.23 23.199 5.187

As table 3.2.8. shows no significant difference was found between male and

female English learners in the level of Persian perceived competence.


Table 3.2.8.

Independent Samples Test for Persian Perceived Competence (Persian PC)

Levene's Test for Equality of

Variances


F Sig. t Df Sig.

(2-tailed)

Mean Difference

Std.

Error Difference

95%

Confidence


Lower Upper

Persian

PC

Equal variances

assumed .019 .890 -.116 53 .908 -.78 6.707 -14.230 12.674

Equal variances not assumed

-.118 41.269 .907 -.78 6.619 -14.143 12.587

Descriptive statistics for English communication apprehension is summarized

in table 3.2.9.

Table 3.2.9.

Group Statistics for English Communication Apprehension


Mean

English communication

apprehension

FEMALE 35 62.91 20.392 3.447

MALE(MARD) 20 64.85 13.929 3.115

As table 3.2.10. shows, no significant difference was found between male and

female English learners in English communication apprehension.


60

Table 3.2.10.

Independent Samples Test for English Communication Apprehension

Levene's

Test for

Equality of Variances


F Sig. t Df

Sig.

(2-tailed)

Mean

Difference

Std. Error Difference

95%

Confidence

Interval of the

Difference

Lower upper

English

communication apprehension

Equal

variances assumed

1.692 .199 -.377 53 .708 -1.94 5.141 -12.246 8.375

Equal

variances

not assumed

-.417 51.158 .679 -1.94 4.646 -11.262 7.390

Regarding the first null hypothesis; namely, there is no difference between

male and female English major learners in WTC, no significant difference was

found between male and female learners in their WTC. Therefore, the first null

hypothesis was not rejected.

The results of the t-test showed that there was no significant difference

between male and female learners in their rate of communication apprehension.

Thus, the second null hypothesis was not rejected as well.

Regarding the third null hypothesis proposing that there is no difference

between males and females in their perceived competence, the results showed

no significant difference between male and female students in their English and

Persian perceived competence. Therefore, the third null hypothesis was not

rejected, either.

Discussion

While previous studies by McCroskey and Charos (1996) showed high

correlation between L2 WTC on the one hand and communication

apprehension and perceived competence on the other, the results of this study


indicated high correlation between English WTC and perceived competence.

The correlation was statistically significant. However, there was no significant

correlation between English WTC and English communication apprehension.

Contrary to the findings of the study by Aida (1994), Kitano (2001), and

Horwitz et al. (1986) which revealed that the students with high anxiety were

afraid of speaking in the target language and became nervous when speaking it,

the current study showed no significant correlation between willingness to

communicate and the rate of communication apprehension.

Moreover, regarding the study by Kitano (2001) which showed correlation

between anxiety and self-perception in male students, the results of this study

showed no significant correlation between communication apprehension and

self perceived competence in both male and female learners.

Furthermore, despite Brewer's findings (2008) which indicate that females

are significantly more prone to experiencing anxiety than young men, the

findings of this study showed no significant difference between male and

female learners in their rate of communication apprehension.

Conclusion

Since some of the obtained results are inconsistent with what has been achieved

in other situations, it can be concluded that there are many psychological,

social, and cultural factors affecting willingness to communicate,

communication apprehension, and perceived competence. As perceived

competence is a strong correlate for willingness to communicate, second

language teachers are to provoke the matter of self-confidence in their classes

and make a relaxed setting for learners, so that the learners can perform well

and can participate more eagerly in classes.

The findings of this study do not support the results obtained in other studies

in this field. Obviously, many variances are at work in the issue of language

learning. The combination of these variances and the magnitude of their effects

are of prime importance in research in the area of EFL. Certainly numerous

research studies should be carried out, each of which contribute to the

clarification of the role of each factor. This study is no exception and has its

own contribution.

As Brown puts it, language learning is a jigsaw puzzle, thousands of pieces

of which are to be assembled in order to come up with an eventual shape.

Studies, though in contrast, help us have a more crystallized and scientific


62

picture of the phenomenon and will certainly lead to the formulation of a theory

of language learning and acquisition, something which is vital in this discipline.

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66


The Effect of Self-Directed Training on ESP Learners’ Self-Directed

Learning Readiness

Mohammad Mohammadi Parinaz Mohammadi

Urmia University Urmia University


Abstract

The major role of self-directed learning (SDL) in a successful learning at

distance education has been confirmed by various studies. Although

learners pass General English courses before studying any ESP courses at

distance education of Iran, they usually lack the preliminary skills for

independent language learning. The current study aimed to explore the

effect of self-directed training (SDT) on ESP learners‟ self-directed

learning readiness (SDLR). Eighty-six B.A students (19 male and 67

female) studying English for Economy and Management at Tabriz

Payam-e-Noor University participated in this study. A demographic

questionnaire and Guglielmino‟s (1978) self-directed learning readiness

scale (SDLRS) were implemented to select the participants of the control

and experimental groups. The experimental group was provided with

SDT in three different stages a) an introduction to SDL, b) SDT

workshop, and c) SDT pamphlet. Then, a post-test of SDLRS was given

to the two groups. ANCOVA was applied to analyze the data. The results

revealed that SDT could enhance ESP learners‟ SDLR. The findings

imply that an appropriate training is needed to improve learners‟ SDLR.

Higher levels of SDLR can contribute to a successful ESP learning at

Payam-e-Noor University in Iran.

Keywords: distance learning, ESP, self-directed learning, self-directed

language learning, self-directed training

Introduction

In recent decades, the aim to make learners independent from teachers leads to

a new concept in the system of education called „Distance Learning‟. As Petty

and Johnston point out “distance learning takes place out of rigid boundaries of

classroom, using a textbook accompanied by lectures on tapes, CDs, or online

programs handed on a particular schedule to learners studying at home, with the

aim to create a hybrid program by combining elements of learning at classroom

and distance learning” (2002, p. 2).


The Effect of Self-Directed Training on ESP Learners‟ … 68

Distance learning has been used for many years at developed and

developing countries in the world. Even it has been used ever since Socrates

(died 399 BC). It was applied in Iran by establishing Payam-e-Noor University

in 1988. At this University, students study the materials provided to them

independently. However, they are provided with some sessions to meet their

teachers in order to ask them any questions they might have come across in their

studies.

The main reason in conducting this research originated from my own personal

experiences as an English language learner at Payam-e-Noor University. During

my B.A. studies, I realized that many ESP learners came across problems in

English learning. In many cases, they came to others or me as an English learner

at Payam-e-Noor University for help. ESP learners at different courses used to

question how they should improve and learn English language in their ESP

modules.

Learning ESP is an eminent prerequisite for non-English majoring learners

to act efficiently not only in their current education, but also in their future

work. Therefore, learners spend a considerable time learning ESP during their

B.A. studies. The need for learning ESP even gets more prominence thanks to

the rapid changes and creation of new knowledge, and access to technology.

ESP learners must keep abreast of new information, current issues, and

technological aspects of their scientific studies. Therefore, they need to broaden

their ESP abilities by updating their sources of information independently

beyond what is needed to know about ESP in order to pass the entrance exams

of the postgraduate studies. This effort can be labeled as self-directed learning

(SDL).

SDL is defined by several scholars in different terms. For example,

Knowles (1975) defines SDL as a process in which an individual learner takes

the advantage to recognize his learning needs, establish learning goals, identify

appropriate materials, implement relevant strategies in learning, and evaluate

the learning progress, with or without the help of others. Hiemstra (1994)

believes that SDL is any study in which an individual learner takes the

responsibility to plan, implement, and evaluate his own learning process.

Besides, Vann (1996) states that SDL is a learned phenomenon that is based on

affective traits, love of learning and basic skills, and cognitive exercises. SDL

is defined by Kumaravadivelu (2003) as a state of learning in which making all

the decisions related to learning are shouldered by the learner; however, main

factors in implementing the decisions are necessarily given by authorities. On

the other hand, Smedley (2007) believes that SDL is an approach to learning


that relies on flexibility in time and place of learning and entrust responsibilities

of learning to the learner.

Whereas SDL is common among all ESP learners, it could be a salient

feature of ESP learners in distance learning. In such a setting, learners are

obliged to apply SDL during their whole studies and cope with the requirements

of this university. It is claimed that SDL is the essential factor in succeeding and

accomplishment of courses in distance learning (Gearhart, 2002; Gan, 2004).

However, as learners in Iran are accustomed to learn in formal education with a

lock-step style for many years, learning in a SDL method seems very

demanding to them. Therefore, they may confront problems in conducting SDL

in their courses, in particular language learning courses.

Despite the plethora of literature developed in the area of SDL across the

world, it seems that we are far from understanding the beneficial role of SDLL

in distance learning of Iran. In order to keep the trends of SDLL, a helpful

instruction of how to conduct SDL is required. This brings about a new kind of

training named „Learner Training‟ which focuses on explicit teaching of

techniques and procedures of learning a language and appreciation of strategies

and their appropriate use to be a self-directed learner (Williams & Burden,

1997).

Several researchers implemented learner-training courses as an intervention

program in various fields of study. They found that it enhances learners‟ SDLR

and achievements of main courses (Gearhart, 2002; Gan, 2004; Saha, 2006;

Hunag, 2008).

The critical state of ESP learning at Payam-e-Noor University and the evident

necessity for such training confirms the need for conducting research in this

area. Hence, this research is going to tackle this issue via steps in training such

students in self-directed procedures - afterwards termed ‘self-directed training’

(SDT) - and try to direct them toward SDLL. In this study, the major aim is to

find the effect of SDT on ESP learners‟ SDLR. Accordingly, the following

research question was posed:

- Does self-directed training affect ESP learners‟ degree of readiness for

self-directed language learning?


Literature review

There is no doubt that formal education gained high value in most countries

compared to SDL, but as Paul.E. Gray (cited in McGuiness, 2005, p36) believes

"The most important outcome of education is to help students become

independent of formal education.” This is what exactly fostered in stating the

great aim of distance learning in Iran that is to create equitable opportunities for

learners to continue their education independently by their own effort. Truog

(2004) suggests that learners should be equipped with rubrics and strategies of

assessing learning environment and exploiting it in order to carry out a

successful SDL. He believes that the culture of preparing learners for test should

be substituted with a culture of preparing learners for the test of life i.e. SDL.

SDL that leads to conducting independent studies is not totally a new concept in

the field of learning (Grow, 1991). It can be traced back to the lives of Greek

philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle (Hiemstra, 1994). However,

the groundwork of SDL was laid during last three decades of 20 century by

Tough, Knowles, Guglielmino, and Long (Hiemstra, 1994). Tough in his

dissertation tried to analyze self-directed teaching activities that resulted in

publishing a book, The Adult‟s Learning Projects in 1979. Knowles‟s two

famous publications, Self-Directed Learning in 1975 and Andragogy not

Pedagogy in 1968, provided definitions and assumptions as foundations for

further researches. Guglielmino‟s (1978) dissertation leads to development of an

instrument to measure SDLR by Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale

(SDLRS). Finally, Long and his colleagues established an annual International

Symposium on Self-Directed Learning in 1987.

All these works spawned numerous publications, researches, and instrument

developments by other researches throughout the world. Gibbons et al. (1980)

studied the biographies of 450 self-directed learners to propose principles for

SDL. Long (1989) focused on the importance of building theory and principles

for SDL in terms of sociological, pedagogical, and psychological dimensions.

Candy (1991) illustrated the dichotomy of SDL as a process and as a goal.

Brockett and Hiemstra (1991) proposed Personal Responsibility Orientation

(PRO) model that focused on similarities and differences between SDL as an

instructional method and as a set of personality characteristics. Hiemstra (1994)

studied SDL in terms of learning and learner‟s ability or willingness to take the

responsibility of learning and accepting its consequences. Hiemstra and

Brockett (1994) explored how to overcome internal and external sources of

resistance to SDL.

With accelerating interest in SDL, new roles were assigned to teacher and

learners. Gibbons, Baily, Comeau, Schmuck, Seymour and Wallace (1980)


focus on the active role of learners in engaging at challenging activities rather

than passive and abstract-theoretical activities. Tough (1967) emphasizes the

shift of responsibility from teacher to learner in conventional learning and SDL.

He asserts that the range of responsibilities varies along a continuum in which at

one pole the maximum responsibility is shouldered by the teacher whereas at the

other pole the maximum responsibility is shouldered by the learner.

Rothwell (1999) defines teachers‟ roles in SDL as facilitator, enabling agent,

and resource agent. As a facilitator, teacher guides learners through providing

strategies by which learners conduct their learning process to achieve specific

goals. By adopting the role of enabling agent, teacher mediates with learners,

provides means for pursuing learning process, and helps them to discover

learning problem and find a solution to carry out SDL. As a resource agent, the

teacher connects learners who have a problem in carrying out SDL with

resources that can help them to solve the problems.

Despite the fact that teacher has a significant role in learning procedure, we

should not ignore the primary role of learner as an individual who is eager to

learn relevant materials in his own controlled, pace, time, and style. The learner

and the teacher are taught as co-managers in the process of learning; therefore,

teaching cannot automatically leads to learning because of the fact that learning

is a personal construct controlled by individual learner (Kumaravadivelu, 2003).

Knowles (1990) acknowledges that some learners might not be familiar with

SDL; therefore, they require time to adapt to SDL (as cited in Saha, 2006).

Learners at any stage of self-direction can acquire a self-directed orientation

toward language learning by adapting various steps proposed by several authors

of SDL. SDL ability in learners can be facilitated by applying several steps such

as introducing appropriate learning activities, creating opportunities for being

independent, implementing facilitating methods, and assessment methods

(Huang, 2008).

Carter (2001) acknowledges that the first phase of any training to facilitate SDL

and autonomy in learners must be the exploring of learners‟ educational

background. He contends that this investigation can determine the degree of

learners‟ willingness to assume responsibility in learning.

Chammot, Barnhardt, El-Dinary, and Robbins (1999) suggests four process

of planning, monitoring, problem solving, and evaluating for language learning

relevant to all skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing (as cited in

Kumaravadivelu, 2003). They asserts that beyond these processes learners‟


awareness of learning strategies and teachers effectiveness in learner training

are two major factors in conducting an independent language learning.

Considering all the above discussion, it is needed to provide learners with SDT

that includes information about skills, strategies, and appropriate steps for

managing SDLL process.

Methodology

Participants of the study

Eighty-six B.A students (19 male and 67 female) studying English for

Economy and Management (ESEM) at Tabriz Payam-e-Noor University were

selected to participate in this study. They were selected according to four major

criteria. First, those who passed General English (GE) course were selected.

Then, those who studied ESEM once and failed the final exam of university

were discarded from the study. Moreover, those who were studying English in

institutes more than 1 year were discarded. Finally, those who were not sure to

attend in all sessions of ESEM course were discarded.

Having selected participants according to these criteria, the final participants

were chosen according to the normal distribution of scores in General English

course and SDLRS questionnaire.

Descriptive statistics of learners‟ GE scores displayed the mean score and

standard deviation of 15.2 and 2.4, respectively. In order to have enough

number of participants, scores between two standard deviations above and

below the mean score of GE were selected. However, as those who failed GE

were filtered in the first stage of selecting participants there are not any score

between the ranges of 10.5-12.

Furthermore, in order to select participants based on their scores in SDLRS

questionnaire, a descriptive statistics of SDLRS were calculated. The mean

score and standard deviation of SDLRS scores are 220.5 and 18.9, respectively.

Those scores between two standard deviations above and below the mean score

of SDLRS were selected.

At last, the participants were divided into two groups and the homogeneity

of two groups was confirmed by calculating an independent samples t-test of

GE and SDLRS scores. Then, one group was assigned to the control group and

the other to the experimental group arbitrarily. Table 1 represents the

demographic distribution of the two groups.


Table 1

Participants in the Two Groups

Gender

Male Female Total

Groups

Control 13 30 43

Experimental 6 37 43

Total 19 67 86

Instruments

For data collection, a demographic questionnaire was prepared to elicit general

information from students including name, age, gender, major, general English

score, language learning experiences, etc. Guglielmino‟s (1978) SDLRS was

adopted as a pretest and posttest. Moreover, the scores obtained from this

questionnaire were also used for selecting participants and homogenizing the

two groups.

SDLRS is a 58-item scale, a highly valid and reliable questionnaire, used in

more than 250 studies of SDL. The main focus of items are on 8 factors:

openness to learning opportunities, self-concept as an effective learner,

initiative and independence in learning, informed acceptance of responsibility

for one‟s own learning, a love to learn, creativity, future orientation, and the

ability to use basic study skills and problem-solving skills. Each item have a 5-

point likert format scale including almost never true of me, usually not true of

me, sometimes true of me, usually true of me, almost always true of me.

Procedure

Data was collected from intact classes at Tabriz Payam-e-Noor University. Two

questionnaires were distributed among learners and they were assured that all

information would be confidential and would not have any effect on their

scores. They were instructed to complete demographic questionnaire and then

read the items of SDLRS. They were explained to read items and select one of


1-5 points according to their first impression of statement about their learning

experiences.

Data obtained from the two questionnaires were analyzed to select the

participants of the control and experimental groups. The experimental group

received special treatment while the control group instructed by ESP teacher as

is usual at Tabriz Payam-e-Noor University. Treatment was provided to the

experimental group in three different stages. First, the experimental group was

provided with the concept of SDL, SDL models, its relevant issues, and SDLL

in three different sessions, each session lasting 20 minutes. In order to avoid

any intrusion to learner‟s program, a workshop lasting one hour and a half was

scheduled to teach the important issues of SDLL, skills and strategies, and steps

necessary for a successful SDLL. Finally, the researcher decided to supply a

pamphlet to the experimental group covering all the issues discussed earlier in

the workshop.

Having provided the corresponding treatment, SDLRS questionnaire was

given to the two groups after 6 weeks to check the effect of treatment. Data

obtained from this questionnaire, used as posttest, were analyzed to check the

difference of participants‟ SDLR before and after treatment in the experimental

group. Moreover, it was used to check the difference between the control and

experimental group regarding their SDLR.

Data analysis

All the data collected in different stages of conducting this research were

analyzed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0 in

order to carry out descriptive statistical procedure and further calculations.

ANCOVA was used to compare SDLRS scores of the control and

experimental group. The reason for selecting ANCOVA was that it provides

more details about any differences between and within groups regarding

readiness for SDLL after providing treatment to experimental group, while

controlling pretest scores of SDLRS in two groups. Significant level for all

analysis in this study was set at p<0.05.

Discussion

In order to get a general view of learners‟ SDLR, a descriptive statistics of pre-

test SDLRS of the two groups is calculated. After testing homogeneity of the two

groups, the pre-test mean score and standard deviation of control and

experimental groups were 221.3721 and 14.95871; and 221.4186 and 17.75392,

respectively.


According to Guglielmino (1978, p5), the mean score of 221 is classified in

average level of SDLR. She concludes that learners in this level “are more likely

to be successful in more independent situations, but are not fully comfortable

with handling the entire process of identifying their learning needs and planning

and implementing the learning”.

Following giving instruction of SDT to experimental group a post-test of

SDLRS was implemented. The post-test mean score and standard deviation of

control and experimental groups were 225.0233 and 14.49218; and 242.3256 and

16.46457, respectively.

In order to determine the existence of meaningful difference between pre-test

and post-test scores of SDLRS, ANCOVA was employed. As Table 2 indicates

Wilks' Lambda equals to 0.568 with F value of 63.773 (df=1, Error of df=84) and

a significant value of 0.000. Because the significant amount is less than 0.05, it is

confirmed that learners‟ post-test scores of SDLRS in the two groups has

increased during conducting this research.

Moreover, based on the results provided in Table 2, Wilks' Lambda equals to

0.727 with F value of 31.486 (df=1, Error of df=84) and a significance value of

0.000. Because the significant amount is less than 0.05, it can be claimed that the

difference of post-test and pre-test scores of SDLRS in experimental group is

significantly more than that in control group.


Table 2

Multivariate Tests of Pre-test and Post-test SDLRS

Effect Value F

Hypothesis

df

Error

df

Sig.

Pre-test and Post-test

of SDLRS

Wilks'

Lambda

.568 63.773 1.000 84.000 .000

Pre-test and Post-test

of SDLRS * control

and experimental

groups

Wilks'

Lambda

.727 31.486 1.000 84.000 .000

Furthermore, according to Table 3 that displays a comparison between the two

groups, the F value equals to 7.923 with a significant level of 0.006.


Table 3

Tests of Between-Subjects Effects of SDT

Source

Type III

Sum of Squares

Df Mean Square F Sig.

Intercept

8904805.209

1

8904805.209

21815.631

.000

Group 3235.558 1 3235.558 7.923 .006

Error 34303.233 84 408.372

The significance value is less than 0.05 that reveals that a difference can be

observed in learners post-test scores of SDLRS in experimental group in

comparison to those scores in control group. This difference can be traced back

to implementing SDT to experimental group during studying ESEM course at

Tabriz Payam-e-Noor University.

These differences of post-test scores and pre-test scores of SDLRS within and

between two groups are clearly illustrated in figure 1. It is evident that post-test

scores of SDLRS in two groups have been improved in comparison to pre-test

scores of SDLRS. Moreover, this figure manifests the differences of post-test

scores of SDLRS between experimental and control group, obviously.


Figure 1: Differences of post-test and pre-test mean scores of SDLRS

Conclusion

With the advent of other forms of education such as distance learning,

investigating factors that enhance learning in this educational system gained

more importance. SDL one of the essential issues in distance learning was

explored during recent decades by scholars.

This study aimed to find the effect of SDT in universities that incorporate this

educational system in Iran. By implementing SDT on selected participants, it was

revealed that SDT could improve ESP learners SDLR significantly. This research

with the focus on providing SDT to ESP learners in distance learning highlights

the role of teachers, learners, and material developers in exploring the state of

SDLL and exploiting the information necessary to enhance learning in distance

education of Iran.

Pre-test and Post-test of SDLRS

2 1

Est

imat

ed M

arg

inal

Mea

ns

250

240

230

220

Group

Control

Experimental


Considering all the possible limitations of this study, some important points

are suggested for further exploration in future. The researchers should repeat

this study in other branches of Payam-e-Noor University in Iran with selecting

participants randomly from various majors to explore the effect of SDT in

different majors. Moreover, it is needed to repeat this study with sufficient time

to provide SDT to learners and check the long time effect of it on learners

SDLR and their ESP achievements. Further research is needed to investigate

the effect of SDT on learners‟ ESP achievements and SDLR by taking in to

account their motivation, self-confidence, socio-cultural factors, and age. Last

but not least, it is essential to explore the effect of SDT on foreign language

learning in distance education of Iran.

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http://eprints.qut.edu.au/16293/



The Chaotic World and the Entropic Crisis in Thomas Pynchon‟s

The Crying of Lot 49

Hassan Rezaei Mehdi Azari Samani

Kazeroon Islamic Azad University Sheikhbahaee University


Abstract

Having its roots in science, „chaos theory‟ provides a new strategy to

examine the disordered world of postmodern novels to find the hidden

order underlying the apparent chaos. This study tries to clarify the

ambiguous relation between Oedipa Maas, the „Tristero system‟ and the

„Maxwell‟s Demon‟ in Thomas Pynchon‟s The Crying of Lot 49. Oedipa

Maas, the main character of the novel is regarded as an „everyman‟ type

character who tries desperately to make sense of the signs and mysteries

proliferating around her, but she can never fulfill her quest because she is

trapped in a chaotic world where there are no stable values, friends or

meanings. She feels separated from the world around her and longs to

regain the stability she used to have before she started her task as the

„executrix‟ of her former lover‟s vast estate. She does not manage to find

„order‟ in the surrounding chaos, but applying the major tenets of chaos

theory and examining concepts such as „the butterfly effect‟,

„bifurcations‟, „strange attractors‟, „recursive symmetry‟ and „entropy‟ ,

we can come to a better understanding of the order underlying the

disordered world of the novel.

Key words: chaos theory - the butterfly effect - strange attractors –

entropy - recursive symmetry - Maxwell‟s demon - Thomas Pynchon

Chaos theory is the study of apparently disordered systems to find an

underlying order. The theory was popularized by James Glieck‟s Chaos;

Making New Science (1987) which first introduced the principles and early

developments of chaos theory. After finding a consolidated place in the

scientific context, chaos theory found its way through the literary and cultural

domains as a result of its convergence with postmodernism. “The purported

epistemological power of chaos theory to explain complex nonlinear events has

led some critics to consider chaos theory as being applicable to social systems”

(Ward 4). In the context of literature, chaos theory shares with postmodernism

the concepts of „uncertainty‟ and „ambiguity‟. The literary interpretation of

The Chaotic World and the Entropic Crisis in … 84

chaos theory, as Ward further argues, is founded on two basic premises: that

because of the similarities between chaos theory and postmodernism, “the two

may be considered chronologically and theoretically parallel paradigms, and

that the social and fictional systems studied by the humanities are comparable

with the systems studied by science” (ibid). Prigogine and Stangers might be

the first to consider the convergence of chaos theory and humanities, because,

as they argue, the original French title of their book, La Nouvelle Alliance,

describes the “convergence of science and the humanities.” N. Katherine

Hayles in Chaos Bound: Orderly Disorder in Contemporary Literature and

Science (1990) considers literature and science “as two mingled voices

within… postmodern culture” that have become closely associated (208).

However since the appropriation of chaos theory in literary criticism is a new

field of study there have been just few works to have dealt with it practically.

Harriet Hawkins in Strange Attractors: Literature, Culture and Chaos (1995)

shows how the terms and concepts derived from the science of chaos can be

used in the analysis of the literary works. She emphasizes the universality of

chaos theory and believes that this approach is applicable to literature of all

periods. She discusses the butterfly effect, strange attracters, turbulence and

instability in such early works as Paradise Lost, Tempest and a more recent

book, Jurassic Park. However, Gordon E. Slethaug‟s Beautiful Chaos: Chaos

Theory and Metachaotics in Recent American Fiction (2000) is the first book to

examine contemporary American fiction through the lens of chaos theory.

Slethaug discusses the accomplishment of major American writers “through

their disruption of conventional linear narrative forms and their use of strategic

tropes of chaos and order, but also - and more significantly for an

understanding of the interaction of science and fiction - through their self-

conscious embrace of the current rhetoric of chaos theory”.

A glance at the postmodernist fiction reveals that most contemporary writers

try to bridge the gap between science and literature. In the late twentieth

century, non-linear dynamics and chaos theory provided the writers with a new

source of inspiration that can be seen in the works of Tom Stoppard, Don

Delillo and Thomas Pynchon, who employ concepts of thermodynamics and

information theory to “portray societies saturated with technologies that can by

turns become liberating or threatening” (Heise 2).1 The focus of this article is

on „order‟ and „entropy‟ as tools to find the secret patterns of Thomas

Pynchon‟s The Crying of Lot 49 which is considered the portrayal of the

twentieth century, especially of the American society in the late sixties. In this

novel we can see a mixture of different social and cultural elements such as the

culture of suburbia, hippie rock singers, druggies, conspiracy groups, theater,

actors, lawyers and paranoids. Oedipa Maas, the protagonist of this novel tries


to put these random elements together and wishes to create “constellations”,

that is, to find an underlying order or pattern behind them, but the more she

tries, the more she gets lost in the surrounding chaos.

„Butterfly Effects‟, „Bifurcations‟ and „Strange Attractors‟

Oedipa, a young woman who lives in California with her husband, Mucho

Maas, comes back home from a party in which she has celebrated her being

appointed as the executrix of her ex-boyfriend‟s will. After contemplating on

the memories she had with Pierce, she travels to San Narciso (Pierce's

hometown) where she meets Metzger, her co-executor, and Miles, a member of

a rock group called Paranoids and begins to sort through Pierce's tangled

financial affairs. She comes across an underground mail service called

W.A.S.T.E with the symbol of a muted post horn. On a trip to Fangoso

Lagoons, an area in which Pierce owned a substantial amount of land, they

meet a lawyer who is suing the Inverarity estate on behalf of his client, who

recovered and sold human bones to Inverarity but has not receive proper

payment. A member of The Paranoids points out that this story is similar to the

plot of a Jacobean Revenge play called The Courier's Tragedy. Oedipa and

Metzger see a production of the play the next day. This play adds to her

bewilderment as she gets to know about an illegal mail system in renaissance

Europe, called Tristero. After the play, she meets Driblette, the director of the

play, and asks him some questions but does not get satisfying answers. As she

leaves the theater, she remembers that she wanted to discuss the bones but she

just talked about Tristero. This word becomes her major concern as she tries to

investigate different versions of the play in order to find out more. She notices

that the paperback version has no mention of the Tristero, which puzzles her.

She decides to go to Berkeley to meet the publisher. On the way, she stops by

an elderly care home that Pierce had owned, where she meets an old man with a

ring depicting the muted post horn. He tells Oedipa that his grandfather cut this

ring off the hands of an Indian he had killed. She also hires a stamp expert

named Genghis Cohen to examine Pierce's stamp collection. Genghis tells her

that some of Pierce's stamps have a muted post horn in their watermark. To

find more about Tristero, Oedipa goes to Yoyodyne Company, one Pierce‟s

large belongings, and sees Stanley Koteks drawing the W.A.S.T.E symbol. He

introduces John Nefastis and his machine that Oedipa, later in the story, seeks

out to bring order to her state of mind, but fails. Oedipa returns to her home in

Kinneret, and decides to see her doctor to seek solace. However, her frustration

never diminishes as she finds her doctor gone crazy and her husband addicted


to LSD. On return to Echo Hotel, the Paranoids group inform her that Metzger

has run off with a teen girl.

Feeling lonely and frustrated, Oedipa meets Emory Bortz, an English

professor whose name Oedipa finds in the preface to one of the versions of The

Courier's Tragedy that she has found. He helps Oedipa piece together the

history of the Tristero, which dates back to mid-16th-century Europe. He also

tells Oedipa that Driblette, the person who knew the best about the Tristero

version of the play, has committed suicide. Oedipa begins to give up as she

realizes that she is very lonely and has no real friends. She visits Mike

Fallopian again, who suggests that the whole Tristero mystery may be nothing

more than a complex joke played on her by Pierce. Oedipa does not accept this

possibility and leaves him angrily but later when she puts all the information

she has gathered together, she realizes that every route leading to the Tristero

also leads to the Inverarity Estate. Genghis Cohen gives her more information

about Pierce‟s stamp collection, which is to be auctioned off by a local dealer as

Lot 49. Oedipa thinks that the person who is going to bid for the collection may

know the key to the Tristero. So, she attends the auction, wondering what to do

to the strange bidder. In the last scene of the novel, Oedipa sits in the room

waiting for the crying of Lot 49.

One of the most challenging implications of chaos theory that is implied in

the notion of „the butterfly effect‟ is that systems change from near-to-stable

dynamics to far-from-stable dynamics when they undergo bifurcations. The

increasing number of bifurcations will cause the system to break apart and lose

much of the order or pattern they have. Chaos theory demonstrates that

“whether it occurs in computer, weather system, or a human being, a difference

in output, so small as to be imperceptible at the time it occurs, can ultimately

produce huge difference in output” ( Hawkins 15). Nonlinear systems are,

therefore, extremely sensitive to initial conditions, that means, “similar

phenomena or systems will never be wholly identical and that the results of

those small initial changes may be radically different” (Slethaug xxiii). In other

words, chaos theory demonstrates that very small, seemingly insignificant

individual effects can exponentially compound with other effects and give rise

to disproportionate impacts. (Hawkins 16)

In the Crying of Lot 49, Oedipa is leading a seemingly normal, stable and

relatively predictable life until she receives a letter giving her new

responsibilities as Inverarity‟s executrix, at which point she becomes subjected

to emotional and spiritual flux. Her routine and domestic life, symbolized by

Tupperware parties, television, and twilight whisky pours and her marriage

alters dramatically that the foundation of her life breaks apart. Her life, at every


moment of the story, is so uncertain that she (and even the reader) cannot

predict what is going to happen next. Her life is surrounded by different forms

of butterfly effects so that her life becomes similar to a basin of instability and

bifurcations. In other words, the far-from stable system of her life undergoes

bifurcations that seem totally uncontrollable. In chapter three, having just

committed marital infidelity with Metzger, she finds herself entrapped in a

world of convoluted mysteries that she cannot sort out, and reflects on her

perception of the Rapunzel figure in Remedios Varo‟s painting that she had

once seen in Mexico. This painting has a powerful effect on Oedipa since she

has always seen herself imprisoned in a tower that is “everywhere”, seeking

hopelessly to fill the void of her life. She desperately tries to embroider a world

that she finds uncongenial. She used to think that Pierce can save her from her

tower, “but all that had then gone on between them had really never escaped the

confinement of the tower” (11). Having realized that Pierce is not the solution

to her problem, she hopes to find it somewhere else; “she pursues and then

rejects one possibility after another that might fill the void and provide some

sort of meaning … that may offer some solutions to the mysteries presented to

her” (Slethaug 48).

In the third chapter of the novel, Oedipa finds the muted horn symbol of the

Tristero system, and this is the cause of a new mystery that is going to be a new

“attractor” towards which the whole system of her mind gravitates. An

attractor, to quote Hayles, “is simply any point within an orbit that seems to

attract the system to it”. (140) In other words, it is a point that guides or attracts

the behavior of a system and causes the events to take place. When she comes

upon The Courier’s Tragedy, this is the word Tristero which “ hung in the air as

the act ended and all lights were for a moment cut; hung in the dark to puzzle

Oedipa Maas, but not yet to exert the power over her it was to”(52). She finds

the word significant, and has this presentiment that it would mean more to her

later, although she does not know why yet. Once again, another bifurcation

happens in the system. Now, she is “faced with a metaphor of god knows how

many parts; more than two, anyway. With coincidences blossoming these days

wherever she looked, she had nothing but a sound, a word, Tristero, to hold

them together”. (80) Oedipa is well aware of the chaos that is floating all

around this word, since, as it was mentioned above, when the number of

bifurcations increases, the system is in a state of chaos. She tries to regulate this

chaos, but she gets to know just a few things about it: The Courier’s Tragedy,

Yoyodyne Company, the stamps collection, the Indian killers in nineteenth

century, and the Inamorati Anonymous group all seem to have something to do

with the Tristero system; that is, the "strange attractor” seems to be the Tristero


itself. Many people trace trajectories within its phase space and wander

unpredictably within it, but are always drawn to remain within its orbit. This

can be witnessed at the night when Oedipa roams the city apparently randomly,

but keeps seeing the Tristero. She too, of course, is in its orbit.

When Oedipa reflects on the incidents happened to her, she realizes that

whenever there is something related to the Tristero system, a trace of her

bidder, Pierce Inverarity, can also be found. In other words, Pierce Inverarity, a

mogul who might have owned the whole San Narciso, can be considered as the

major „strange attractor‟ of this novel. He reminds us of Eris (the goddess of

chaos) who instigated and ordered his own forms of chaos. But Oedipa cannot

make sure about the source of chaos, this major strange attractor of the system,

because he is now missing, and Oedipa has to stay intellectually and

psychologically stable in the midst of a chaotic system surrounding her, as the

Demon in “Nefasits‟ Machine” is detached from the system itself causing the

system not to go towards “ Entropy”.

“Maxwell‟s Demon” and “Entropy” in The Crying of Lot 49

The idea of entropy and Maxwell‟s Demon, which are significant elements of

nonlinear science, play an important role in The Crying of Lot 49. The

ambiguous relationship that Oedipa, Maxwell‟s Demon and the Trystero system

have with one another can be aptly clarified through the exploration of entropy

both in thermodynamics and information theory.3 Maxwell‟s Demon is an

abstract construct which belongs to the realm of thermodynamics. In 1850,

Rudolf Clausius formulated the second law of thermodynamics, which

maintains that “the entropy of the universe tends toward a maximum”.4

Maxwell believes that his demon is able to challenge the claim that all systems

move in one direction - away from order and organization and towards disorder

(entropy) and eventual thermodynamic equilibrium. This Demon (device) is

thought to contradict the second law of thermodynamics by suggesting that a

closed system may evolve into a state of lower entropy (negentropy) over time.

The concept of „entropy‟ seems to be Pynchon‟s favorite metaphor that can

be applicable to many aspects of life. In his introduction to Slow Learner, he

says that he has been trying to understand the concept of entropy ever since he

wrote his short story with the title Entropy, in which he translates the concept

of entropy into social terms (14).5 Oedipa‟s attempt to find the secret of

Trystero and ultimately to save her from her tower of imprisonment is a search

for order, but “the interface between thermodynamics and information theory

prevents the message from being transmitted to the receiver (Dutta 3). In the

story Nefastis tells Oedipa that “communication is the key…the Demon passes


his data on to the sensitive, and the sensitive must reply in kind… the sensitive

must receive that staggering set of energies, and feedback something like the

same quantity of information. To keep it cycling” (84). Oedipa Maas realizes

that she is within “the confinement of [a] tower‟‟(20), similar to the closed

system in which, according to the laws of thermodynamics, entropy increases

which may cause a heat–death energy that will lead to random disorder. She

seeks “an end to her encapsulation in her tower” (44) of thermodynamic

entropy in identifying the “Trystero system”. She is wandering in the midst of a

whirlwind of messages providing her with different probabilities. If we

consider information as a form of energy, as Shannon and Weaver did, then

“the concept of entropy can be used to measure the information or

organizational content of the message” (Ward 132). Hayles, also, believes that

as the amount of information (the freedom of choice in selecting a message)

increases in a narrative, the complexity and uncertainty of this information will

also increase. The concepts of possibility and uncertainty are also shared by the

thermodynamics. Orrin Klapp, in Overload and Boredom, asserts that “matter

and energy degrade to more probable, less informative states. The larger the

amounts of information processed or diffused, the more likely it is that

information will degrade toward meaningless variety, like noise or information

overload or sterile uniformity” (qtd in Dutta 7). This is also true about the

Oedipa because she gets more disordered as she gains more information about

Trystero. “This paradox of information”, Anindita Dutta argues, “in which

knowledge and meaning clash, is held in limbo by redundancy; repetition is

helpful so long as it serves as reinforcement, and establishes recognition.

Otherwise signals would push a variety that borders randomness and noise” (7).

In The Crying of Lot 49, information refers to the data that the demon

collects on the “untold billions of molecules in the “Nefastis‟ box”. Nefastis

explains to Oedipa that thermodynamic and information were entirely

unconnected, except at one point; Maxwell‟s Demon. As the demon sat and

sorted his molecules into hot and cold, the system was said to lose entropy, but,

somehow the loss was offset by the information the demon gained about the

molecules were where”. (105) Implied in this explanation is that “an increase in

one quantity (information) „offsets‟ decrease in another quantity (heat entropy)”

(Palmeri 983). The demon violates the thermodynamic entropy as it produces a

“ staggering set of energies” through the destruction of a “massive complex of

information”, since entropy is an irreversible transformation, the human

intervention of “ sensitive” supplies the information that the demon needs to

convert heat energy into usable energy.


Similar to Denis Gabor‟s comment on Maxwell‟s Demon that “we cannot

get anything for nothing, not even an observation” (see Angrist 199), Schaub

asserts that “the Demon requires some input from outside to keep it all cycling”

(Pearce 57) and concludes that this is the role of Oedipa as a “sensitive”.

Oedipa tries for some minutes, “waiting for the Demon to communicate” (106),

amongst the noise from the “high-pitched comic voices issued from the TV

set”, but she only receives a “misfired nerve cell” (107). This unheard message

is like a “hieroglyphic sense of concealed meaning of an intent to

communicate” (13). Anindita Dutta believes that

The light the Demon uses when he acts as "gateskeeper" to identify the

molecules is too bright for Oedipa's system. And truth, like the entropy

of information theory, irreversibly destroys the meaning of its own

message, just as the Demon destroys the knowledge that the sensitive

passes on to it in order to create power. In this paradoxical state,

Oedipa's quest for the truth about Tristero, and her subsequent attempt

to escape from her tower of thermodynamic entropy are useless,

because they bring her back to the same quantity of heat energy(12).

Peter Abernethy argues in “Entropy in Pynchon‟s The crying of Lot 49” that

Pynchon‟s theme in this novel is that “ entropy in the closed system of

American society is increasing rapidly and that we are beginning to experience

a major failure in communications, an identity crisis that could lead to

apocalypse (18). Oedipa cannot find the information and ends up in a highly

probable state of uncertainty over Trystero. She has a job of sorting and her

“sensitivity” makes her the Demon of pierce‟s estate. She is the demon of her

society exactly in the same way that Maxwell‟s demon is to Nefastis‟ machine.

Her effort to disentangle Pierce‟s legacy makes her study her society through

the signs and symbols around her to differentiate between reality and the

illusion of the Trystero system, and to form her information into some order to

achieve the truth. Schaub proposes that Pierce bequeathed to Oedipa not only

his estate, San Narciso, but also his role. Pierce‟s last name, Inverarity, is the

birthplace of James clerk Maxwell, the inventor of the demon. It suggests that

Pierce was the demon of his system, and now, this is Oedipa who has to keep

the system cycling.

But, for her task of sorting, Oedipa requires a source of energy from outside

to reverse the entropic movement inside towards disorganization, sameness and

death. From the beginning of her trip, she feels “as if there were revelations in

progress all around her” (28). Arriving at Pierce‟s estate, as she looks at the

printed circuit pattern of the streets in San Narciso, she experiences “an odd

religious instant” that the town that looks like a circuit has “an intent to


communicate… so in her first minute in San Narciso a revelation trembled, just

past the threshold of meaning” (13). This revelation, Kermode argues, “would

be of the kind that explains the whole history, the present condition of America,

Inverarity, Wharfinger‟s play and so on; it would explain how waste has

meaning just as, couched as acronym, WASTE forms a sentence („we await sad

Tristero‟s empire)” (13) . She is waiting for a miracle that Jesus Arrable defines

to her as “another world‟s intrusion into this one” (88). But, she falls prey to so

much random information and confronts so many binary choices that she

cannot find that religious instant or that miracle to obtain the truth. “Even if she

did find out the central truth or the excluded middle that has leaked out of the

plot of this novel… Pynchon would have violated the theory of information had

he revealed the encoded message” (Dutta, 12). This is , perhaps, what Pynchon

has had in mind, because the highly entropic information level at the end of the

novel implies high probability and uncertainty which causes the reader to end

up with two different alternatives; either the Trystero doesn‟t exist, and Oedipa

is “in the orbiting ecstasy of a true paranoia”, or it exists, and so it would be the

only way she can “continue and manage to be at all relevant to it, was an alien,

unfurrowed, assumed full circle into some paranoia”(151). Thus the pattern of

Oedipa at the end of the novel is comparable to a type of “everyman” who, just

like the reader, tries to put together the fragments of a chaotic, multi-faceted

society, but fails and cannot achieve the secret, elusive and transcendental

meaning; the END.

„Recursive Symmetry‟ and „Orderly Disorder Structure‟ of The Crying of

Lot 49

Chaos scientists acknowledge that there is an underlying complex pattern in

every disordered (chaotic) system which is said to be repeating itself. This

replication or iteration in the chaotic systems is called recursive symmetry that

is defined by Brian Ward as “a term used by chaologists to describe the

repetitive behavior of an open system” (139). Harriet Hawkins believes that

artistic tradition is nonlinear and chaotic, since “it acts and reacts on itself in

recursive, self referential ways. Thus the behavior of one function is guided by

the behavior of another” (102). Slethaug in Beautiful Chaos asserts that the

distinction between iteration and recursion in literature and art is not as obvious

as in mathematics and science, and differentiates between two forms of

narratives: recursive and iterative. To him, recursive narratives “depend to a

great extent for the meaning of the text upon the readers of an original pattern”,

whereas the iterative narratives “rely more upon the readers‟ conscious

awareness of the differences caused by successive repetitions” (98).


Iterations and recursions play a central role in the structure of The Crying of

Lot 49. Through these recursions and iterations, Pynchon signals the various

analogous problems of trying to discover the central significance. Oedipa‟s loss

of the sources of information and encouragement, her analysis of The Courier’s

Tragedy and Ramedius Varo‟s paintings, her travel to different parts of

California and her comparison of the city to a circuit card, and finally the

ending of the story are instanes of recursion in this novel.

Various characters of the story seem to leave Oedipa when they are most

needed to bring order or an end to the flux of her mind. The novel begins with a

letter informing her that her former lover, Pierce Inverarity has just deceased,

and she is named the executrix of his estate. While trying to disentangle the

estate, she meets Metzger, her co-executor and has a love affair with him, but

later in the story, Oedipa finds that he has escaped with a young girl. As she

tries to find out the secret of Tristero, Driblette, the only person who knew how

the word Tristero entered the courier‟s Tragedy commits suicide. She also loses

her psychologist who has gone crazy and her husband who is found to be

addicted to LSD drugs, forcing him to withdraw from communication. one by

one, Oedipa loses each of the men whom she had used to protect herself –

lover, husband, psychologist, and her co-executor who was supposed to help

her in her search are all “stripping” from her, leaving her to feel “like a

fluttering curtain in a very high window, moving up to then out over the abyss”

(125-26). At different moments of the story, she becomes emotionally,

spiritually, and intellectually separated, and her quest for the meaning in the

labyrinthine paths of story seems to end in dead-ends.

Her failure to find stability, significance, and meaning in her quest to

understand herself as well as the secret of Tristero, and Pierce‟s intention

behind his will, as Slethaug asserts, “is mirrored in her attempt to locate textual

stability and authorized meaning in the play called The Courier‟s Tragedy”

(113). The failure in interpreting the play is again “mirrored in her attempt to

find coherent meaning and significance in the pictures by Remedios Varo or the

stamps of Inverarity‟s collection (Ibid). Her futile attempts to find the

significance of her relationship, the play, the stamps, and the pictures suggest

that it is the pursuit of meaning and significance and the failure to find it that is

the primary link among these various segments of her life and the text.

The other example of recursive symmetry is the ending of the novel. The

Crying of Lot 49 finishes as Oedipa is awaiting “the crying of lot 49” to

discover the identity of the strange bidder at the stamp auction, that is, as

Georgianna M. Colville suggests, it returns the reader to the moment before

opening the book (14).6 Debra A. Castillo comments on Pynchon‟s ending that


The book has announced itself, defined itself, and, in a peculiarly

postmodern variation of this lightly symmetrical construction, put

quotation marks around its own title – the key to unlock this structure –

thus displacing formal symmetry into an active, metafictional shadow

writing (25).

The Crying of Lot 49 does not have an actual ending in the conventional sense

of the word, or it defies closure both for the reader and the character but as Paul

Coates argues " this ending is necessary, for "the fact that no revelation

concludes the book...fits [its] thematic design (qtd in Salomon 17). This is a

kind of self-parody, because the whole narrative is moving forward to come to

conclusion, but by the end of the story the reader is kept waiting and the

meaning or The End is permanently postponed.

Recursive symmetry is the structuring technique of the novel; it is a “will to

form which imposes order on apparent chaos… the miracle machine that

creates plot out of disorganized fragments” (ibid). Through the examples of

recursive symmetries discussed above, Pynchon has created a collection of

plots within a novel that is much like a labyrinth full of disordered paths that

apparently end in “nowhere”, but as William Gleason discusses in his article

“The Postmodern Labyrinth of The Crying of Lot 49”, the labyrinth may appear

chaotic and terrifying to the explorer, but at the same time “ordered and even

delightful to the designer” (2).

Notes:

1. Ursula Heise in “Between Technophobia and Utopia; Science and

Postmodern Literature” argues that appropriation of the science in the context

of literature used to deal with the creation of monstrously human bodies and

minds as in Shelly‟s Frankenstein or Hawthorne‟s Rappacini’s Daughter, or

oppressive environments that degrade humans to mere parts of machinery, as in

Fritz Lang‟s film Metropolis, or the totalitarian societies as in Huxley‟s Brave

New World.

2. For the analysis of Don Dellilo‟s major works in the light of science and

chaos theory see Brian Ward‟s The Literary Appropriation of Chaos Theory,

Gordon E. Slethaug‟s Beautiful Chaos.

3. The concept of thermodynamic and information „entropy‟ in Pynchon‟s

major works has been discussed by many scholars. In addition to the books that

I have cited in this section, some articles have fully discussed this subject,


among which I can mention Thomas R. Lyon‟s “Thomas Pynchon‟s Classic

presentation of the classic law of thermodynamics”, published in the bulletin of

the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, Vol, 27. No, 4. (Dec.

1973), Peter A. Abernethy, “Entropy in Pynchon‟s The Crying of Lot 49, 14. 2.

CRITIQUE 18,(1972) , and Anindita Dutta‟s article to which I am much

indebted, “ The Paradox of Truth, the Truth of Entropy”, available on

http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/entropy/paradox.html.

4. See Lyons and Franklin

5. See also the discussion of Entropy on the following link;

http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/entropy.html.

6. David Seed also has a similar sentence that “instead of resolving the

narrative Pynchon places Oedipa in an audience and by repeating the novel‟s

title throws the reader back into text”. See Seed (1988;123-24)

Work cited

Angrist, Stanley W. and Loren G. Hepler. Order and Chaos. Basic Books, 1967.

Castillo, Debra A. (1992)."Borges and Pynchon: The Tenuous Symmetries of

Art", in New Essays. Ed. Patrick O'Donnell, 21-46 (Cambridge University

Press).1992.

Dutta, Anindita. (2002) “The Paradox of Truth, the Truth of Entropy.” The

Modern Word. 16 May 2008.

<http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/papers_dutta.html >.

Gleason, William. "The Postmodern Labyrinths of Lot 49." Critique 34.2,

(winter, 1993): 83-99.

Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York: Viking, 1987.

Hawkins, Harriet. Strange Attractors: Literature, Culture and Chaos Theory,

Prentice Hall/Harvester Wheatsheaf. 1995.

Hayles, N. Katherine. "Chaos as Orderly Disorder: Shifting Ground in

Contemporary Literature and Science." New Literary History 20.2

(1989): 305-22.

http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/entropy/paradox.html

http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/entropy.html

http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/papers_dutta.html


--- . Chaos Bound: Orderly Disorder in Contemporary Literature and Science.

Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990.

--- , ed. Chaos and Order: Complex Dynamics in Literature and Science.

Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.

Heise, Ursula. “Between technophobia and utopia: Science and postmodern

literature”. 1996.28 Aug 2008

<http://www.columbia.edu/cu/21stC/issue-2.3/heise.html>.

Kermode, Frank. The Use of Codes in The Crying of Lot 49" in: Thomas

Pynchon. Ed. Harold Bloom. Chelsea House, New York, United States:

1986 : 1-14.

Lyons, Thomas R and Allan D. Franklin. “Thomas Pynchon's "Classic"

Presentation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics”. The Bulletin of the

Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association. 27.4 ( Dec. 1973):195- 204

Published by: Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Stable 6

Jul 2008 : <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1346665>

Matheson, Carl and Evan Kirchhoff. (1997) “Chaos and Literature”, The John

Hopkins University Press,. Online version:

<www.muse.jhu.edu/journals/philosophy_and_literature/v021/21.1matheson.html>

Palmeri, Frank. “Neither Literally nor as Metaphor: Pynchon's the Crying of

Lot 49 and the Structure of Scientific Revolutions”. ELH, 54. 4 ( winter,

1987) : 979-999. Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Online

version. 15 Jul 2008 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2873106>

Pearce, Richard. "Pynchon's Endings". NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction. 18.2.

(1985) : 145-153.

Perez ,Carmen -llantada auria. “Fiction at a Bifurcation Point: from Newtonian

Law to Postmodern Uncertainty in Pynchon's Mason & Dixon”. Oklahoma

City. university law review. 24.3 (1999). 29 Jul 2008.

<http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/okla/perez24.htm

Prigogine, Ilya and Isabelle Stengers. Order Out of Chaos: Man‟s New

Dialogue with Nature. London: Flamingo, 1985.

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Pynchon, Thomas. The Crying of Lot 49. New York: Harper & Row, 1966.

---. "Entropy." Slow Learner. New York: Little, Brown, & Co.,. 81- 98,1984.

Seed, David. “The Fictional Labyrinths of Thomas Pynchon”. Iowa City:

University of Iowa Press, 1988.

Slethaug, Gordon E. Beautiful Chaos: Chaos Theory and Metachaotics in

Recent American Fiction. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000.

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Carolina, 2007. <http://toto.lib.unca.edu/sr_papers/literature_sr/seniorpap_lit.html> . 30 July 2008.

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English, University of Australia,1998.

<http://www.indolentdandy.net/phd/>. 13 December 2006.

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North Carolina).2007. Online version:< http://toto.lib.unca.edu/sr_papers/literature_sr/seniorpap_lit.html> . 30 July 2008.

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Dept. of English, University of Australia,). 1998. Online version:

<http://www.indolentdandy.net/phd/>. 13 December 2006.

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