Improvement of English Proficiency for Students in Al Dhabiania School - Research Paper Example

Improvement of English Proficiency for Students in Al Dhabiania School Name: ID: College Advisor: Date Submitted: Word Count: 2250 Academic Integrity Statement I hereby state that the work presented is my own original work, which I have truthfully built upon with as much time and effort as I could apply. I recognize the values and policies within this institution that entail upholding academic honesty and integrity. Acknowledgements I would like to extend my gratitude to all the participants of Al Dhabiania School, who were able to take part in this research project. It is through them that I was able to gather sufficient, relevant, and essential data for my theory and work. I would also like to thank my college advisor for his professional and prudent guidance on how to go about collecting, analyzing, and presenting data in a way that was up to the academic standards of the institution. I would like to thank my colleagues who I worked with diligently throughout the research period. It was through them that we were able to exchange meaningful ideas for our respective works. Finally, I would likely to extend my gratitude to my parents and family members for their love and support throughout the period in which I carried out my research. Background The research project focuses on grade two English students at Al Dhabiania Government Girl’s School in Al Mushrif Area, Abu Dhabi City. In particular, the researchers wish to investigate some of the issues, which students within this grade face in their attempt to learn English beyond the emergent level. All of the participants of the school are Arabic students. Throughout the year, students in the Al Dhabiania School have experienced significant struggles in their curriculum, a significant element of which has been language barrier (Al Dhabiania Model School, 2017). For courses that are learnt in English, challenges have been experienced in grasping some of the grammatical rules of tenses, which prevent them from forming fluent sentences either in their speech or in written work. Thus, a critical evaluation of these challenges is crucial in order to establish feasible strategies of tackling it. The limitations do not only limit the scope of learning for these children, but also present the social challenges of lack of proper communication between them, their colleagues, their teachers, and the larger communities. Al Dhabiania Government School follows the UAE MOE curriculum. It consists of co-education from KG to Grade 3. For the girls only school, the figure is from grade 4 to 12 (Al Dhabiania Model School, 2017). The nationality of these students is highly homogenous with all of the students coming from Abu Dhabi. In the cycle one co educational level, students are taught to learn English as an alternative course, which will allow them to become more apt in communication and learning of other subjects in the language. Despite the success experienced in learning of other subjects, English has presented particular challenges that the research seeks to address from a critical and empirical standpoint. Extensive literature has revealed that schools, which perform poorly in English, will be more likely to perform poorly in other learning areas. Communication will also be limited because of the evident language barrier existing between students, staff, and fellow colleagues of the students. Challenges may be present not only in learning but also in teaching English. It is crucial for instructors to be not only qualified but also have an efficient strategy to impart knowledge on emergent students. According to Guccione (2009), providing efficient instruction to English learners is crucial for the process of efficient learning. The instructor has a huge responsibility of knowing their students in terms of their learning capacities as well as preferences in terms of reading, speaking, and writing styles. Additionally, providing extra support for the student is of paramount importance. Each student, no matter how similar their academic backgrounds, may have different learning needs which need to be addressed (August et al, 2009). English language learners also face the issue of learning not only English but also the courses such as sciences and humanities, which require a higher level of understanding. Therefore, the proficiency is significantly hampered because of the need to concentrate on advanced levels (its application) rather than the basics. Specifically, the challenges arise from not knowing the key words within a sentence, thus limiting their understanding. It can also be caused by a lack of motivation, which can be attributed to the general environmental attitudes, the instructor’s attitude, or the personal outlook of learning the language as possessed by the students. Thus, there is a need to provide students with knowledge of the importance of English, not as a better language than the native tongue, but one that provides further opportunities for future learning and communication (Harman & Varga-Dobai, 2012). The research question provided in the study is; what are the factors that lead to the female students’ struggle to improve their level of English proficiency. In particular, the researchers wish to focus on a predefined group of participants with the aim of providing a comprehensive analysis of their challenges. There is a need to specifically address the challenges experienced among the female students in the school in order to provide further insight on the state of female learning as well as the type of support they are provided with. Methodology The research is to be carried out in Al Dhabiania Girl’s School will take place over a period of 3 months. This will be sufficient in providing a longitudinal study of the progress and challenges experienced in learning English. The sample size that will be collected will be six students out of a classroom of 25. Some of the hypotheses proposed in the study are that the complex grammar, which limit an ability to learn rules and pronunciation, especially for young students who are learning English as a second language. Additionally, another challenge is that speaking and writing English may be different, especially in an environment where the language is spoken more frequently than others. It is highly likely that speakers will use slang and colloquialism, which is not used during formal learning. There also exist several variations of English, which are spoken in different environments, such as formal and informal. Participants of the study will include six grade two students who represent the emergent level in the English class. The research seeks to provide a qualitative study to evaluate factors that compound their struggle to learn English within the school. On average, their level of proficiency in English is low, especially because they learn English as a second language. The first language is Arabic, which has fundamental differences with English. The English teacher, a Lebanese national, will also be part of the participants (an interviewee). The methods of data collection include providing questionnaires to the teacher over the course of three months. This will allow the team to gain a perspective of the level of progress made on a weekly and monthly basis. The questionnaires will seek to provide answers to the research question stated. Specific questions will include inquiry into information such as academic, social, linguistic, and environmental factors that facilitate their struggle in learning English. A standardized questionnaire will be provided for this study to address these questions as well as draw some relationships between academic capacity, motivation, and a struggle to learn English. A method of data analysis will include coding the results within a spreadsheet and analysis with the use of a statistical software program such as Microsoft Excel. This is because the use of qualitative data will not provide characteristics that need to be grouped and analyzed further. The data analysis will be aided through ensuring that all the questions and multiple-choice answers have been pre coded within the system. In order to make work easier, the questionnaire will only have close-ended questions and will thus avoid the open-ended ones. This is because it is going to be more difficult to code answers that vary widely from what the research team is expecting. Some of the potential limitations that I am likely to encounter in the whole research process include a lack of sufficient time to be able to carry out a longitudinal study. As a research that will take three months, more time will also be required to carry out a critical evaluation of the data collected. Another potential limitation that I am likely to encounter is the lack of sufficient and accurate data because of the small sample size (six students are being observed). Generally, the smaller the sample size, the less representative it will be of the entire female student population, leading to inaccuracies. Another likely challenge is the lack of available resources that will allow the team to carry out a study spanning three months. The teacher who will be issued with the questionnaires may fail to reply (due to limited information) or return them, thus increasing the levels of non-response. The most important ethical consideration that the team will adhere to is ensuring that all information about the observed participants provided by the teacher is kept confidential and used solely for the purposes of the aforementioned research. Results The data was analyzed and presented in form of graphs and tables. The results indicated a high level of lack of cooperation in the students in terms of learning. The teacher was provided with questionnaires about the six students to evaluate their learning progress over the period of 3 months. In the table below, the research seeks to provide an in depth evaluation of the level of understanding in English with the six students observed. Since the data provided is qualitative, the table will classify information on a scale of 1 to 5. Five indicates a high level of understanding instructions. Number of students Level of Understanding 3 2 2 3 1 5 In the pie chart, the level of understanding of English instructions for students is relatively low. Only one student observed showed a high proficiency in English listening skills while three showed low level understanding. It is important to note that the language used by the teacher to communicate with these students is simple and appropriate for students at this emergent level. Another significant result focuses on the linguistic aspect of English learning for the group. Out of the six students who were learning at this stage, only one was able to state that they had prior lessons, and thus felt that English was a little familiar. The remaining five students (83%t) stated that they had not learnt English prior to this. This indicated a fundamental linguistic challenge, where students needed to learn new concepts, vocabularies, and other elements of a new language before proceeding to more advanced stages. The level of participation was coded in form of a scale ranging between one and five. Level 5 indicated a high level of classroom participation while 1 indicated that the student carried out minimal participation. The teacher was the one who would assess the level of participation in order to minimize bias through asking the students themselves. The results were tabulated as follows: Number of Students Levels of Participation 3 1 2 2 1 4 From the table, it is evident that the higher levels of participation were achieved by a significantly fewer number of students. In contrast, the low level of participation was achieved by a larger number of individuals. This indicates thatt the classroom is generally not participative during the English lessons, a factor that may have led to poor performance and more struggle to learn. Participation in English learning is a fndamental element of improving performance. With the low levels of participation, it is certain that this factor contributes to low performances in English, which is likely to affect other courses. Discussion and Conclusion With the low levels of understanding of English instructions presented by the teacher, it was a revelation of the poor performances seen in the past two years. The students were also relatively comfortable in terms of social and economical status, which were not significant for the study. A lack of participation may be attributed to a lack of interest in learning English. In Abu Dhabi, Arabic is the most widely spoken language. As such, students may not see the present importance of learning a language which they thought they may not use. Thus, there is a need to provide a contextual background about English and its importance in Academics as well as other areas of life. The students will need to work on some of their social skills in order to improve academic participation. It was revealed that the lack of coordination in the classroom setting limited participation, which was difficult for the teacher as well. Another pressing challenge as stated by Harman and Varga Dobai (2012) focuses on the learning environment in which the student finds himself or herself. The lack of a sense of purpose for learning for students can be a limiting factor in any academic setting. A sense of discouragement will prevent any student from developing a positive learning attitude. It will subsequently limit the level of active participation of the student in his or her own learning. This could provide a deeper insight into the overall state of comfort and well-being within the environment in which the students found themselves. For such a young group, the process of language adjustment might have been difficult, which may contribute to their lack of ability to take on more academic responsibilities. Therefore, it is important that the support staff acknowledge this as a fundamental challenge for young students, in order to give room for adjustment. Support and assurance from teachers, parents, and other friends will contribute to a strong system, which aids in their transition processes. This will make them more receptive towards learning English. Both English and Arabic have fundamental differences in speech, writing styles, and vocabulary. This includes some of the fundamental elements such as a difference in alphabets, varying individual sounds, and sound combinations. Additionally, both English and Arabic have significantly different grammar, sound Elision, and Word stresses. The biggest difference is in writing, where Arabic is written from right to left while it is vice versa for English. It will therefore take a high amount of effort from the instructors to be able to instill these linguistic concepts, thus enabling students to differentiate between the two languages (Harman & Varga-Dobai, 2012). The instructor needs to understand the individual levels of proficiency and establish a classroom balance that makes it easier to learn together (Guccione, 2014). In order to increase the level of participation, it is important for an instructor to gain a deeper understanding of the needs of students. This can allow her to address individual or collective concerns and challenges. Additionally, the teacher can make it easier for students to engage in active participation through associating English lessons with interesting and fun activities. These can be through short plays in which each student is required to pick a part (August et al, 2009). It can also be achieved through more frequent verbal communication, where the teacher asks everyone to speak in English. If more resources are made available, the school could carry out extracurricular activities outside of the classroom, such as attending English plays. References Al Dhabiania Model School. (2017). Al Dhabiania Private School in Abu Dhabi. Retrieved 05 Feb 2017 from http://www.dubaifaqs.com/al-dhabiania-private-school.php August, D., Shanahan, T., & Escamilla, K. (2009). English language learners: Developing literacy in second-language learners—Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth. Journal of Literacy Research, 41(4), 432-452. Guccione, L. M. (2014). Oral language development and ELLs: Challenges and Solutions. Colorin Colorado. Retrieved 05 Feb 2017 from http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/oral-language-development-and-ells-5-challenges-and-solutions Harman, R., & Varga-Dobai, K. (2012). Critical performative pedagogy: Emergent bilingual learners challenge local immigration issues. International Journal of Multicultural Education, 14(2). Glossary Interview with the teacher Q1. Please state the name of the student____________________ Q2. Please state the level of learning for the student_________________ Q3. What is the level of participation you have observed for the specific student? Please rate on a level of 1 to 5 (5 being the highest level of participation) 1 2 3 4 5 Q4. What is the specific student’s level of instruction understanding? Please rate on a level of 1 to 5 (5 being the highest level of understanding) 1 2 3 4 5 Q5. What is the average level of grammar proficiency for the students in both speaking and writing? Please rate on a level of 1 to 5 (5 being the highest level of proficiency) 1 2 3 4 5 Q6. What is the level of vocabulary content within the student’s writing? Please rate on a level of 1 to 5 (5 being the highest level of vocabulary content) 1 2 3 4 5 Read More