STATE SCHOOL AND PRIVATE UNIVERSITY TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF WRITING AS A SOCIAL PRACTICE

Presented to:

Dr. ALBERTO FAJARDO

Presented by

LEIDY MARCELA CHACÓN VARGAS

BIJAN NASSIRI

INTRODUCTION

        Writing is one of the skills that concern EFL teachers as it is currently seen as a holistic and social practice that attempts to reflect the students’ culture or reality. It is expected that writing becomes an authentic reflection of who learners are and what they think about the context that surrounds them. At the same time writing as a social practice aims to see the pupil as the center of the process where an atmosphere of cooperation is promoted.  

       In that concern it is highly relevant to see how the teacher as one of the participants of that interaction understands the writing process and how he eventually approaches it.”In the realm of teaching writing as a language skill, often research in to classroom teaching ignores teachers’ perspectives on practices that they implement in their lesson”. Abadi & Marzban (2012, p. 25)

       When students are assigned to write a paragraph or a set of them, they can find it difficult or even boring because of different reasons. Initially, they might not get enough clarity on the task, they do not have sufficient knowledge on the topic, they do not receive plenty of support and help from the teacher and perhaps the activities implemented to foster that process are not the most suitable for the group, or there is not a close relationship between those activities and the students’ reality, among many other situations.

       Along all these possible reasons there is one inherent factor that is crucial in the atmosphere of writing. This is the conception and understanding that teachers pursue in regards to the writing process and its scenarios.  Clark and Peterson (1986) say, “make explicit and visible the frames of reference through which individual teachers perceive and process information” (p. 287). This is important to consider how the teacher’s performance becomes a mirror of his own theoretical constructs under which he is building the teaching and learning atmosphere. “So for having such a key role, their practices and perceptions are critically important since they have the capability of influencing the effectiveness of the teaching/learning process”. Abadi & Marzban (2012, p. 26) Then, teachers’ conceptions play a crucial role when planning and guiding writing activities for students that ensure the reality and individuality representation.

       In that concern the main purpose of this small scale project was to identify how two different groups (from a state school and from a private university) of EFL teachers understand writing.  It is important to consider these perceptions since these represent the own reflection and questioning that teachers conduct towards their own practices. At the same time, what actually students write about need to be considered in the same rate.

  

RESEARCH QUESTION

What are state school and private university teachers’ perceptions of writing as a social practice?

GENERAL OBJECTIVE

To characterize the state school and private university teachers’ perceptions of writing as a social practice.

Specific

Ø  To identify the conception of language hold by state school and private university teachers in the atmosphere of writing.

Ø  To describe the students’ composition in terms of their connection with the teachers’ beliefs on writing.

LITERATURE REVIEW

      Appealing to the core concepts under which this small-scale project was based, we have teachers’ perceptions, writing and written composition.

Starting with teachers’ perceptions, these are defined according to Ahern (cited in Russell & Kelly, 2002, p. 2) as “individual belief systems and subjectivities”. At the same time Abadi & Marzban (2012, p.26) inform, “beliefs are often known as our attitudes, values, judgments, axioms, opinions. They affect not only how people behave but also what they perceive (or pay attention to) in their environment”. It means that perceptions recall on the type of ideology, theoretical as well as empirical constructs that the individual handle. These aspects not only define how a person thinks but also the way he acts.  

      That is why in the dominium of teaching EFL skills and specially writing the teachers’ perspectives cannot be ignored. Griffiths (2007) support this by saying that teachers become vital in the process of teaching and learning because teachers have the ability to influence the outcomes from this process. For that reason this short research focused on perceptions towards writing in order to account for what Clark and Peterson (1986) state “make explicit and visible the frames of reference through which individual teachers perceive and process information” (p. 287).

       At the moment of looking at recent research approached in this field, it was found that Yoshihara (2012) conducted a study where it was searched the teaching beliefs teachers had, how they formulated those beliefs, and how they applied those beliefs to their teaching practices. Results showed that the participants perceived and interpreted their roles as coherent with the curriculum guidelines. One of those roles was to fit the students’ demands. In terms of the differences they approach different methods and strategies to guide their practices and mediate their functions. This study gave us lights when understanding the teachers’ perceptions of writing in their classes at two different contexts, a state school and a private university.

      Additionally, Douglas, (2009) carried out a study whose main focus was to find out the teachers’ perceptions of how they teach writing. The author approached variables like time, method, and feedback given. Results demonstrated the participants showed a wide range of classroom practices and a variety of methodological influences. In terms of feedback it was found that it was necessary to reinforce awareness, raise levels of understanding and foster more confidence. Outcomes from this research gave a space for this small-scaled investigation in order to understand the language conception handle by teachers in atmospheres like writing.

      Based on what has been mentioned before here is important to address a concept of language which should be immersed in the environment of writing. That is to say that the focus that educators are giving to writing among their lessons necessarily informs about the concept of language they handle. In that sense, through this study we accounted for finding and characterizing the social view of writing. At this point, Quevedo (2008, p. 126) states, “writing has been considered as the language skill that provides individuals with linguistic and communicative resources addressed to a particular community. That is to say, through writing, individuals are able to submit common papers, letters and simple notes or academic reports”.

Based on the previous assumptions, the author and to our own understanding, there is a limited and rigid conception of language in here. So it is expected that teachers and researchers go further and understand writing as students’ self-reflexes that show who they are and what they want. At that point is when we can talk about a social conception of language. In this same line Quevedo (2008, p. 126) says, “my writing philosophy relates to a holistic view of the person as a social being not one of language skill development”. This idea comes as a complement to the cognitive side of writing. It relies on the incorporation of the social and cultural views of writing. Through this perspective, the person who writes, in this case the student is seen as a member of a community, this relationship around writing and the context has been stated around theories of authors like Vygotsky (1978).

           Considering the connection of the individual and the society through that must be reflected on writing, there is a need to see at that individuals’ written composition. In general terms it is understood by authors like Byrne in McDonough and Shaw (1993, p.184) that, “any piece of writing is an attempt to communicate something: that the writer has a goal or purpose in mind; that he has to establish and maintain contact with his reader; that he has to organize his material and that he does this through the use of certain logical and grammatical devices”. At the same time, it is considered that “the writer interpreting the world, not simply observing it. Saying that something is important means adopting an attitude towards it.”, Martin in Holland and Lewis, (1997, p.52). The previous assertions let us to say that students’ composition moves from gathering grammatical or linguistically appropriate sentences, towards the representation of the self. It is a matter of expression of feelings, beliefs, knowledge among many other things. That is why this short projected attempted to incorporate those pieces of compositions created by students in their classrooms and reveal from these those conceptions of writing approached not only by students but especially by teachers as the guiders of the process in the classroom.

      

METHODOLOGY

       This section includes core aspects about the type of research, the setting, the participants, the instruments, the data collection techniques and the process of analysis in order to achieve the research objective of this study.

Type of research

        With the purpose of getting the main purpose of this short project, the qualitative paradigm guided this process. This focuses on the study of a situation that is happening within a real context with real participants. Merriam (cited by Nunan, 1998, p. 77), state towards this paradigm is is “an intensive, holistic, descriptive analysis of a single entity, phenomenon of social unit”.

       The qualitative method used was the case study because the main purpose of this investigation was to understand the teachers’ perceptions about writing as a social practice in two different contexts, a private university and a state school. Case study is defined by Janesick (1994, p. 216) as, “the cornerstone of qualitative research”, and Yin (1984, p. 23) also approaches it “as an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real- life context; when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident; and in which multiple sources of evidence are used”.

Setting and Participants

       This short-term research was conducted in two different contexts, a state high school and a private university. The participants of this study were three teachers from each one of the contexts. So we had four women and two men.

Instruments

       With the purpose of gathering data for answering the research question two instruments were used. A semi structured interview (see annex A) whose main objective was to look for teachers’ perceptions of writing as a social practice. Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2000), state that through interviews participants can express their views, perceptions or interpretations towards a specific situation. The second instrument used was students’ samples of written composition where the main objective was to describe these in terms of their connection with the teachers’ beliefs on writing. These samples are described in research as students’ artifacts, Ander-Egg (1993, p. 137) states that these are “documents that provide information and are used to consult, to prove or to study specific issues”

Data collection procedures and analysis

        Considering the qualitative nature of this research, the stages approached to collect and analyze the data were the following. Initially, the information from the teachers’ interview was read, organized and reduced in order to account for common patterns. At the time that this process was completed the students’ samples of writing were read and used as support of what was said by the teachers in terms of their perceptions. In that sense as the data was categorized, defined and associated in different ways, it was a process followed under the principles of grounded theory. (Strauss & Corbing 1990). With the purpose of reporting data excerpts a specific coding was stated. “STI” for state teachers’ interviews and “UTI” for university teachers’ interviews.  Finally, this analysis helped us to come up with the following categories and subcategories.

      

FINDINGS

       With the purpose of getting the main objective of this small-scale project: to characterize the state school and private university teachers’ perceptions of writing as a social practice, one category and two subcategories emerged after the decanting of data from the interview and the students’ compositions.

A Social Medium: The Language Role Attributed by Teachers

      This category refers to the conceptions teachers handle in regards to language as the layer of their teaching practices. The principal view here is that language accounts for a social dimension where the meaning is interactively constructed and negotiated. In that sense the EFL classroom as a community constitutes the space for reflecting this language characteristic.  Language as a social medium implies that along the teaching experiences in the classroom the different atmospheres that take place are mediated by a holistic dimension that is not only focused on competence or in the development of isolated skills; but an environment where their participants are considered human beings with genuine needs and life experiences.  

       From these categories there are two subcategories that accounts for the characterization of teachers’ perception towards writing in their classrooms. The two subcategories were Teachers’ perceptions on writing: A hand by hand negotiation process with reading, and Teachers’ Perceptions on writing: A sense of life experiences.

Teachers’ perceptions on writing: A hand by hand negotiation process with reading

      This subcategory aims to explain the teachers’ beliefs on writing as a result of their perceptions of language and writing. Teachers view writing as a complex cognitive process where reading offers more tools for students to write. This is because writing depends on the influence of other skills “writing is dependent on progress in other skills”. Oller in Jacobs et al. (1981, p. 2)   Students are expected to read, summarize, analyze, propose and criticize in order to be able to produce a text. Here it must be said that students’ composition is seen as a product of these previous tasks approached by students. At the same time writing is seen as the production of suitable texts that accounts for the topic under study and that accomplish the criteria stated for its organization. Here, teacher is who mainly guides the process as he decides on the type of texts students should write. Here the teacher also emphasizes on the edition of the texts as part of the writing cycle that accounts for quality in form and content. So students are expected to write about topics they like or the ones the teacher proposes.   

     In regards to the contexts of this study, what has been described in this category accounts for the state teachers’ perceptions as they say,    

“Lenguaje es una condición social del ser humano que habilita al hombre para ser y para existir. Es a través del lenguaje que el hombre puede leer su mundo, puede expresarse, y eso lo necesitamos para vivir” (STI 1).

Es todo lo que comunica es ese grupo de elementos que hace posible que el ser humano sea, es el cúmulo de elementos que mirado desde la sociología o la antropología hace que el ser humano pueda comunicar sus pensamientos, sentimientos, sea de una forma verbal o no verbal” (STI 3).

“Pienso que la lectura y la escritura son procesos dicotómicos que se trabajan de la mano. Tengo en cuenta el contexto, la edad de los estudiantes, la unidad temática que se está planteando. El vocabulario, la gramática, el tipo de texto narrativo, descriptivo o argumentativo”. (STI 1)

 “En el proceso de escritura me interesa mucho la capacidad que tiene el estudiante para organizar sus ideas en inglés siguiendo una gramática básica pero me interesa mucho la capacidad de síntesis que el estudiante pueda mostrar. Me gusta tener en cuenta el aspecto de lógica de coherencia y los textos, depende el nivel del estudiante depende lo que personalmente y la creatividad” (STI 3).

  

Teachers’ Perceptions on writing: A sense of life experiences.

     

       This subcategory refers to the teachers’ beliefs on writing as an attempt to make students able to reflect who they are and to describe the context that surround them. Teachers view language as an opportunity to give students freedom in the things they want to write and how they want to do that. Students are expected to reflect on their experiences, emotions, interests, dreams, expectations, points of view towards the different situations that they experience in a groupal as well as in an individual form. Students’ compositions are mainly product of open discussions and peer reflections towards different topics.  Here the teacher guides the process in the sense that he posts situations, present readings or topics that foster students’ interest and reaction.  These compositions are checked by the teachers where they use a coding procedure and additionally add comments to the texts produced by students. They are not obliged to correct these all the time, but when they have to, it is expected from them to interpret their errors and correct them.  This view of writing is supported by Berns, (1990) when stating that,

“If language is a social practice of meaning-making and interpretation, then it is not enough for language learners just to know grammar and vocabulary. They also need to know how that language is used to create and represent meanings and how to communicate with others and to engage with the communication of others” (p.17)

      

In regards to the contexts for this study, teachers said,

 

El lenguaje es el medio a través del cual se negocia el significado y se construye conocimiento. Esto nos lleva a una dimensión social y cultural en el sentido de la interacción y la significación constante” (UTI 2)

“El lenguaje media todo lo que somos y hacemos, todo comunicamos y todo nos comunica. Por el lenguaje somos capaces de crear, e interpretar significados” (UTI 1).

“El lenguaje es el medio de interacción social que nos permite entender el mundo,  a través del lenguaje expresamos emociones, pedimos información, interpretamos situaciones, símbolos e incluso los creamos” (UTI 3)

“En mis clases las actividades de escritura se desarrollan grupalmente, busco que los estudiantes interactúen y expongan sus puntos de vista, la idea es que juntos construyan el sentido de su propio texto” (UTI 3)

“En el proceso de escritura con mis estudiantes me interesa que ellos siempre hablen desde sus experiencias, de lo que ellos conocen, trato de evitar al máximo imponer mis temas, la idea es que todos generamos ideas y ellos son quienes eligen y eso si es un proceso de asesoría continua en las clases” (UTI 1)

“La escritura es una habilidad que no puede verse aislada de ninguna de las otras, por eso siempre busco la vinculación de un tema netamente lingüístico y su aplicabilidad en temas que los estudiantes viven día a día. Es así como pueden en cuanto a la escritura socializar sus ideas y textos finales” (UTI 2) 

CONCLUSIONS

      Regarding the main objective of this study: To identify the teachers’ perception of writing as a social practice. The nature of these perceptions is mediated by the conception of language that teachers handle about writing. In that sense they assume language as a social medium through which students can make sense of the linguistic aspect of language. In the case of state teachers’ perceptions, they find writing eminently connected with reading. They try to link the experience students have and link it with grammar aspects for example in order to account for fostering students’ composition skill. This is a process conducted by means of summarizing, describing, analyzing and posting points of view. At the time students are expected to edit their own texts.

      On behalf of private teachers they assume writing as a way of letting students express themselves by accounting for a confortable atmosphere. They assumed it as a matter of life experiences. They stated the role of reflection, and freedom to select the topic of interest as layers at the moment of approaching writing as a social practice.  In that sense, teacher consider that language structured is important, but it is much more valuable to address what students want to say and the own style they follow.

     Finally, it was found a close connection between the teachers’ perceptions and the written compositions developed by students in class.  So is a good symptom of coherence between what teachers in both contexts say and what they do. However there is a need for further research in each one of these settings in terms of variables like the methodologies implemented by teacher towards writing, the materials used the activities and the amount of time devoted to this process. 

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