The Role of Social and Educational Factors in Oral Participation of ELT Students
Subject Areas : آموزش زبان انگلیسیمسعود ذوقی 1 , امیررضا نعمتی تبریزی 2 , Sara Ghobadi 3
1 - Department of ELT, Ahar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahar, Iran
2 - Department of English Language, Payame Noor University, -Tehran, Iran
3 - Department of ELT, Ahar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahar, Iran
Keywords: oral participation, social and educational factors, Structural Equation Modeling (Sem),
Abstract :
Oral participation (OP) in class is an important factor contributing to the development of oral fluency. Recent studies in language learning have addressed the necessity of classroom interaction, or rather students’ oral participation in class. A correlational research study was drawn upon to measure the oral participation and factors affecting oral activities of the ELT students studying at the M.A. level at Islamic Azad University of Ardabil in Iran. An initial pool of 93 participants was selected through purposive sampling. The data analysis was conducted using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results obtained indicated that there is a significant relationship between social and educational factors relative to the oral activities of EFL learners. The findings also showed that in oral participation, educational factors play the most important role in controlling the OP content.
Anderman, L.H. (2003). Academic and social perceptions as predictors of change in middle school students’ sense of school belonging. Journal of Experimental Education, 72, 5-22.
Astin, A.W. (1999). Student involvement: A developmental theory for higher education. Journal of College Student Development, 40, 518-529.
Bentler, P. M. (1990). Comparative fit indexes in structural models. Psychological Bulletin, 107, 238-246.
Chaudron, C. (1988). Second language classrooms: Research on teaching and learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cole, M. (1996). Cultural psychology: A once and future discipline. Cambridge, England: Belknap Press.
Cotter, Ch. (2007). Speaking well - four steps to improve your ESL EFL students speaking ability. Retrieved March 12th, 2008 from: http://ezinearticles.com/?Speaking-Well----Four-Steps-To-Improve-Your-ESLEFL.
De Vaus, D. A. (2001). Research design in social research. London: Sage Publications. de Jong, T., & Ferguson-Hessler, M. (1996). Types and qualities of knowledge. Educational Psychologist, 31(2), 105-113.
Ellis, R. (1999). The study of second language acquisition. New York: Oxford University Press.
Fawzia, A. (2002). Factors Affecting Students’ Oral Participation in University Level Academic Classes within the Omani Context. Paper presented at Second Annual National ELT Conference, 27-28, March 2002. Sultan Qaboos University, Oman.
Finn, J., & Voelkl, K. (1993). School characteristics related to student engagement. Journal of Negro Education, 62, 249-268.
Gardner, R., Masgoret, A. M., Tennant, J., & Mihic, L. (2004). Integrative motivation: changes during a year-long intermediate- level language course. Language Learning, 54(1), 1-34.
Gillies, R. M. (2006). Teacher’s and students’ verbal behaviours during cooperative and small-group learning. British Journal of educational Psychology, 76, 271-287.
Harmer, J. (2001). Mistakes and feedback? the practice of English language teaching, Essex, UK: Pearson Education Limited.
Karahan, F. (2007). Language attitudes of Turkish students towards the English language and its use in Turkish context. Retrieved March 12th, 2008.
Kunnan, A.J. (1998). An introduction to structural equation modeling for language assessment research. Language Testing, 15 (3), 295–332.
Lee, P. (2005). Students’ personality type and attitudes toward classroom participation. Proceedings of the CATESOL state conference.
Liu, M.,& Jackson, J. (2009). An exploration of Chinese EFL learners’ unwillingness to communicate and foreign languageanxiety. Modern Language Journal, 92(1), 71-86.
Markland, D. (2006). Latent variable modeling: An introduction to confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Retrieved from http: www.bangor.ac.uk.
Mustapha, M.S., Nik-Abd-Rahman, S.N., and Yunus, M. M. (2010). Factors influencing classroom participation: a case study of Malaysian undergraduate students.Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 9, 1079–1084.
Patchen, T. (2006). Engendering participation, deliberating dependence: inner-city adolescents’ perceptions of classroom practice. Teachers College Record, 108(10), 2053-2079.
Stanton-Salazar, R. (1997). A social capital framework for understanding the socialization of racial minority children and youths. Harvard Educational Review, 67, 1-40.
Swain, M. (1993). The output hypothesis: just speaking and writing aren’t enough. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 50(1), 158-164.
Tatar, S. (2005). Why keep silent? The classroom participation experiences of non-native-English-speaking students. Language and Intercultural Communication, 5, 284-293.
Tsou, W. (2005). Improving speaking skills through instruction in oral classroom participation. Foreign Language Annals, 38(1), 46-55.
Walker, C.O., & Greene, B.A. (2009). Student motivational beliefs and cognitive engagement. Journal of Educational Research, 102, 463-471.
Wheaton, B., Muthén, B., Alwin, D. & Summers, G. (1977). Assessing reliabilityand stability in panel models. In D.R. Heise (Ed.), Sociological Methodology(pp. 84-136). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
White, J. (2004). Speaking, listening and learning materials. Qualifications and Curriculum Authority and the National Literacy Strategy Journal. Retrieved August 25th, 2008, from: http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Pubs/white.html.
Wudong, W. (1994). English language development in China, Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Tasmania.